Divine persuasion

Faith is an integral part of our life as a believer. Recently, I have been reading and studying the book of Hebrews.

Chapter 11 is a section that encourages Christians to live by faith.

This chapter provides us a description of faith, then gives us examples of faith.

What is faith?
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (Hebrews 11:1-3 ESV)

While studying the Bible, I like to look up what the words mean in Greek. I can’t read Greek, but I find it helpful to understand what the author was trying to articulate to their audience.

I looked up faith in the Greek to see what it meant.

(Here is some background. pistis (πίστις, εως, ἡ) is the Greek word meaning faith, faithfulness in Strong’s Concordance)

This is what I found from HELPS Word-studies from Bible Hub
4102 pístis (from 3982/peithô, “persuade, be persuaded”) – properly, persuasion (be persuaded, come to trust); faith.

Faith (4102/pistis) is always a gift from God, and never something that can be produced by people. In short, 4102/pistis (“faith”) for the believer is “God’s divine persuasion” – and therefore distinct from human belief (confidence), yet involving it. The Lord continuously births faith in the yielded believer so they can know what He prefers, i.e., the persuasion of His will (1 Jn 5:4).
(https://biblehub.com/greek/4102.htm)

What stood out to me was divine persuasion in the explanation. God is the one who gives us faith to trust in Him. When we look at what is faith we see the words assurance and conviction. Who gives assurance? Who convicts us?

Every part of our walk with God is dependent on Him. He gives us a choice as to whether we will trust in Him.

Reading the rest of Hebrews 11 demonstrates to us people of the Bible chose to believe in God.

Abel chose to obey by having faith in his worship of God, Enoch chose to faithfully walk (Genesis 5:22-24 ESV) with God, Noah was faithful in his work for God, and the list of people continues.

Some of them saw the reward of their faith, while others did not, and many suffered for their faith.

God provides us with what we need to live our lives as His followers. Faith is an important part, a foundation for this walk.

“Father, give us faith to trust in you. You tell us in your word it is impossible to please you without faith. “And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 ESV

“Lord, help us to draw close to you every day and every minute of our lives. In Jesus Name Amen”