"Faith Must Be Real"

When you read Hebrews chapter 11, you will notice that all of those that are listed had one thing in common: They all did something to prove that they had faith. Abel offered a more perfect sacrifice; Enoch walked with God; Noah built an ark; Abraham left his homeland; on and on, they are, and could be listed. Men and women of God, that believed upon the promises that lay before them, and walked accordingly; knowing that God was more than able to perform those things in which they had put their hope in. So then; What does it mean for our faith to be real? Since, 'Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen', then what is real? What must be real to us is God!!! He and His power to save; His power to move mountains; His power to create life; to perform miracles; to raise the dead; to Love us and care for us more than we could ever know. All of these things which are packed into the pages of His Word, must be more real to us than this life which we see and know here on this earth. Our faith in God must be more real to us than this physical life; Why? Because this life will pass away and shall be no more; but our life in Christ is eternal and is contrary to this physical life. What God does can not be explained away by the physical, and because this is so, the laws of the physical must not apply to our faith; but instead, our faith must trump, or be stronger than these things which are apparent. If we were to look for a moment at Noah, and the task which was before him. Here is a man that was instructed by God to build a boat, and to prepare his family to be taken into the ark, along with two of every animal, so that God would save them from the flood to come. It had never rained before upon the earth, yet Noah prepared this ark for the flood that would come, based upon what he believed God said He would do; not based upon what he knew was apparent. Imagine all the ridicule that he receive from those around him, as he built this ark, which took him around 100 years to complete; to be determined beyond what the physical world would declare, or express. This must be the faith that we hold onto, which is not movable by the things which are contrary, but is fixed upon God and His promises towards us. We must be persuaded beyond measure, that God has a better place waiting for us, and because He does, we can rest in the hope of being there. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: Wherefore God is not ashamed to be their God: for He hath prepared for them a city." (Hebrews 11:13-16)