A Great Cloud of Witnesses: EnochSample

There’s not much that I’m sure of. I don’t know what my children will be when they grow up. I can’t tell you how long I’ll get to enjoy this time with my husband. I assume I know where I’ll live over the next five years, but that could change. I don’t even know what I’ll be cooking next week! There’s a great deal of unknowns in this life. Maybe that’s why faith is called a gift in Ephesians 2:8-10.

In the context of Ephesians, faith is a gift because you and I can’t earn our salvation—God grants faith to us. It is a free gift of God’s grace. But I also believe faith is a gift because it’s something that gives assurance and if you are assured of something you are confident. Faith is confidence in our hope. And our hope is in the promises of God. It is sure—a firm foundation.

It’s important for us to understand this faith in the promises of God because Enoch, who we are about to study, would never have seen even what we have seen! Enoch had a conviction in the things not seen, and think about it: Enoch had not even experienced the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. These are all things that you and I know about—they have come to pass.

Faith then isn’t something that’s abstract or fluffy. Faith is a grounded assurance and conviction in the Lord and His Word, and it rests in all of His promises for today, tomorrow, and forevermore. We are all waiting for the second coming of Jesus—a thing not yet seen. We are all waiting for all things to be made new. So we ask God for continued faith to believe.

How would you define faith in one word?