Years ago, a man named David Edwards preached a sermon. In it he mentioned something that has stuck with me all the years since.
There is a difference (when speaking about God) between, "can he?" and "will he?"
It is easy to accept "can he?" Of course he can, God can do anything. The answer to this question, when it comes to the struggles of our life is always, "yes".
But we live in the realm of, "will he?" That's the crunch isn't it? Can God heal a sick person? Yes... Will he? Sometimes he does, sometimes he does not.
When the writer of Hebrews said, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1 NIV) how do we relate to that? Is this talking about faith in the things God will do for us? If I have enough faith, he will let me win the lottery? That kind of thing?
I think it goes deeper than this. Our faith, our solid faith is not in asking God to do what we want him to do and believing he will do it. Rather, it is in trusting that God is who he says he is, and that he will act in accordance with what he has revealed about himself.
Faith in God, not faith in his works. This requires a relationship; not going to God only to ask him to do things, but getting to know who he is, talking to him, praising him, reading his word, obeying what it says even if we don't understand it.
And then, in that relationship, we live a life of faith in this God we cannot see.
