Why?

December 30

With the confidence that God’s promises are ‘yea and amen,’ why then does it sometimes appear that Christians suffer defeat? Why does every believer not always triumph over every foe? Why are the faithful sometimes overcome by something as simple as failing to attain financial security or matters as weighty as succumbing to disease and death?

Hebrews, Chapter 11, often referred to as 'The Hall of Faith,’ begins with a glimpse of the explanation. In the first verse it says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This makes it very clear that true faith holds to the Lord, even when the fruit of faith remains unrealized.

There is indeed a comprehensive list of the people of God given in this chapter who did not receive the thing for which they prayed. Hebrews 11:39-40 says, “They did not receive what was promised since God had provided something better...” What is that “something better”? After all, what can be better than seeing miracles in response to our prayers?

Ultimately, the Lord does not want us to follow Him because of what He can do for us. He wants us to follow Him because of what He has done for us. Jesus died on the cross to save us from sin. If He did nothing else in our behalf, that would yet be the great, “unspeakable gift” of II Corinthians 9:15, the gift of eternal life, which all those in ‘The Hall of Faith’ received—and so can we.