faith/believing

Hebrews 11:1,3,6

Now faith is the substance [proof] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.---Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.---But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

The word "faith" in these verses is better translated "believing." God puts so much focus on believing in His Word! Believing must be important. What is believing though? Let's look into this a little bit.

The Greek word used here for faith/believing is the word pistis. In Bullinger's Lexicon, the definition given is, "firm persuasion on, the conviction which is based upon hearing, not upon sight or knowledge; a firmly relying confidence in what we hear from God and His Word. (believing)."

When we look at the root word for this word, pitho, we see that its definition is, "to persuade, win by words, influence, to speak with winning words...to be persuaded or convinced...to yield assent to, trust him, obey him, to have assurance concerning, to confide or trust to."

Knowing the definitions of these two words according to biblical usage can bring such clarity and light to this subject. Pistis is being fully persuaded on what we hear. On what are we to be fully persuaded? We get great results when we get fully persuaded on the truths in God's Word. On the other hand, we also hear things from the world. It's up to you and me to decide what we choose to "believe."

Once we are fully persuaded on something that we hear, we act on it. If I hear that a man is handing out $100 bills on the corner of my street, and I choose to believe the person that told me, I'm going to go down to the corner of my street for some free money! It's the same with what we "hear" from God's Word! We can get so fully persuaded on promises from The Word that we act on it and claim the blessings!