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In this series we’ve defined faith, generically, as “living out what I believe” – and, specifically, the Christian faith is “living out what I believe to be true about Jesus.” We’ve seen that our faith begins and grows in three stages: we grow in our understanding about what is true, then we develop a conviction about that truth, then finally we make a commitment to live out that conviction. This final step in the process is the key: our commitment is sealed (and our faith then grows) when we take a step of faith.

In this series we’re looking at faith and how it grows; the kind of faith that allows us to overcome fear and worry, that helps us make good decisions in life, and that gives us a relationship with God himself. As we’ve said, faith is simply living out what you believe, and the process of developing faith goes from understanding to conviction to commitment – i.e., from knowing to believing to doing. This week we consider what it looks like when our understanding develops into a conviction; like Noah, at some point our understanding of what God is saying and doing in the world should become a conviction that it is true – which should ultimately lead to a lifelong commitment to doing what he’s called us to do. As we look at that process, there are two signs that we’ve come to a point of healthy conviction.

We’re in an 11-week exploration of Hebrews chapter 11, and we started with a simple definition of faith: faith is living out what I believe to be true. Last week we saw that there are three stages of faith; first, understanding, then conviction, then commitment. That faith begins with understanding may have come as a surprise to some, since a popular idea in our culture is that faith (religious faith, at least) and understanding (or reason) are opposites – and that religious faith is “blind.” Hebrews 11 begins by making one point clear, however: faith begins with reason; that is, with seeing.