August 6, 2019
Tuesday’s Thoughts on Scripture comes from Hebrews 11:1: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (NRSV)
The first step is to figure out what conviction here means. According to the dictionary it is a “firmly held belief or opinion.” That helps. So it seems assurance is having confidence that what is promised is what will happen and conviction is believing what the promise is.
This reading goes on to talk about the promise God made to Abraham that he would be the father of many descendants and, really, a nation (the Israelites), even though he was too old to hardly think about having children when God told him he would. I can imagine that would make having confidence in the promise difficult!
Perhaps you have had someone promise you something you doubted might happen. Of course I can get that for you; you don’t have to worry, we’ll be there to fix the problem right away; the check is in the mail; etc. Sometimes those promises sound empty and we don’t see how they might actually happen. But with God's promises, there is a different perspective than with human ones. Humans can have all the good intentions in the world, but not be able to follow through. God, however, is not limited by the things humans are - time, money, resources, energy, a clean heart.
Sometimes it is still difficult to imagine God's promises being fulfilled, and the evidence can even seem to the contrary (think of hunger, pain, death, etc). Yet, when we are able to take a breath (or a hundred) and trust in faith, God can surprise us beyond imagining (and people can, too).
Blessings.
PS As we continue in prayer this week for the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, one of the first orders of business was the (re)election of Elizabeth Eaton to the office of Presiding Bishop. Prayers continue as they work through business, etc., this week.
