Mack Trucks

I was driving with my dad one day, and he pointed something out, which for some reason, has stuck with me ever since. He pointed to to a big construction truck and said something along the lines of, "I've been seeing more of these big trucks, lately. You know, that's a good thing - more big trucks means a better economy."

I guess he figured that more trucks equated to more construction, which in turn equates to a better financial position. In any case, this is not an economics lesson, and I'm not trying to make a point about finances. But I do want to get at something important: Hebrews 11.

"What could Hebrews 11 possibly have to do with Mack trucks?" you may ask. Well, I'll get to that in a second.

Anyways, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, Hebrews 11, in a nutshell, is all about faith. It goes through a ginormous list of the outcomes of the faith of many famous Bible characters. It's like a Who's Who of immensely holy people. Almost every verse basically follows this pattern:

"By faith, (insert epic Bible name here) did this crazy thing, and had this crazy result."

Some of those crazy results include having children as numerous as the stars in the sky, making walls fall down by walking around them, and escaping death. So, this begs the question, "What is faith?"

Well, if you would stop interrupting me so much, I would tell you. In this context, faith is simply trusting God to follow through on His promises. So, if one were to trust God to do just that, I bet we would see a lot more risk-taking in the walks of believers.

"What do you mean by 'risk-taking?'" you say? Wow, you feel no shame in interrupting me this much, huh? As I was saying, if we believed the promises of God, we would probably be willing to step out and pray for healing with complete expectation. We would not be afraid of not knowing what to say when we are attacked for our faith. We would trust God to walk into certain situations that, at first sight, feel dangerous and uncomfortable, like proclaiming our Jesus loudly to anyone who would hear it.

Back to the trucks. Just like seeing large amounts of trucks on the highway is indicative of a burgeoning economy, large amounts of risk-taking should be indicative of faith in a Christ-followers' life.

In the end, the strengthening of our faith through prayer and pleading leads to pretty good things. Check it out: "for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Raise your hand if you want to be perfect.

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