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By faith Abel offered sacrifice. By faith Noah made an ark. By faith Abraham went out and journeyed. By faith Sarah conceived. By faith Moses chose to suffer with God’s people and left Egypt and passed through the Red Sea. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down.

Apparently faith is anything but passive. Apparently faith enables quite impressive action!

Getting closer to definition, Hebrews 11:6 describes two additional things that faith does. Faith, or the person coming to God in faith, must believe that God is, and must believe that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

In Exodus 3:14 God’s name is said to be "I AM." In three Gospel instances someone says to Jesus, "YOU ARE the Christ." Here, the person of faith needs to say "HE IS" in the absence of Jesus’ visible presence. Faith responds to the person of God in a relationship of affirmation, basking in that which GOD IS.

I find it interesting to note the name is not "I DO" but "I AM," and what faith believes is not that "HE DOES" but that "HE IS." I too often want God to DO, DO, DO for me while I DO, DO, DO for God. I need to remember that God’s first command to humans was to BE. "BE fruitful" God said (Genesis 1:28).

Faith is BEING together. Faith is seeking God and knowing God rewards that seeking with the "I AM" presence. And yes, BEING together enables quite impressive action!