"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1 KJV)
"But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, "I believed in God, so I spoke." We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. All this is for your benefit. And as God's grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." (2 Corinthians 4:13-18 NLT)
Most people will look at this, saying, "Where is the evidence in this, I don't see anything real?" Though it might not appear that we can grab hold of, it is more about something that will grab hold of us! Anyone that knows how it works, should understand that it is God that makes the move, we are the ones that react and make the choice to believe in Him!
Something I have truly know for most of my life, is that God is real; I just didn't know how much He really loved me, until that day I received His Son into my heart! That was the real gamechanger for me, from that point on, nothing has been the same, everything is new and exciting; even those things which cause heartaches and difficulties, they too cause us to look for God's work in whatever is going on in our lives.
If you want evidence, there is where you find it, by living in the family of God! Yes, it doesn't prove to us the final result, which is what hope makes real; but it shows us the power of God working in and through our lives; which makes us realize that this evidence is: His love is real...
"Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love - not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us." (1 John 4:7-13 NLT)
