The righteous shall live by faith.
Did you know this scripture is repeated FOUR times throughout the Bible! The first place is Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatian's 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38. Anytime anything gets THAT much air time, pay close attention, read the passage in context and always ask the Holy Spirit what He is saying. I get the impression this is an important concept the Lord wants His people to get!
I looked up the key words of this passage in the Strong’s Concordance on BibleStudyTools.com** (see note on bottom)
The word “righteous” in Hebrew means, “just, lawful, righteous”, “just, righteous (in conduct and character)” and “righteous (as justified and vindicated by God)”.
The word “live” in Hebrew means, “to live, have life, remain alive, sustain life, live prosperously, life for ever, be quickened, be alive, be restored to life or health.” Woah. I hope that just overflowed your boat like it did mine!!!
And the word “faith” in Hebrew means, “firmness, fidelity, steadfastness, steadiness”. Much more concrete and substantial than my unspoken, internal perception of faith, where its all elusive-warm-fuzzies! Reading the Hebrew definition of faith, immediately makes me think of Matthew 7 and the parable of man who built his house on the rock paints a picture of the righteous who live by faith. Faith preserves a man’s life & legacy. A woman’s faith provides security and protection for her family.
It makes me think of Noah, who by faith, built the ark. It was his faith which saved a remnant from the rains, flood and wind that destroyed the rest of creation.
Metaphorically speaking, none of us know the amount of rain, the severity of flooding or the strength of the wind that will come in the course of our life. What we do know, errr... Who we do know is the Rock!!! He is the Rock of Ages and He does not change. Build your life upon Him and you are certain, it will stand!
I want to go back to the word “live”. A trendy phrase in today’s culture is “YOLO.” “You only live once!” This verbiage is shortsighted and simply untrue. When we erase eternity from our perspective, suddenly hard things seem 100x bigger than they are. We get a skewed view of reality and plan poorly for the future. This life is a vapor compared to eternity with Christ (or sadly for many, eternity apart from Him).
You believe in planning for the future? Begin living (today!) with eternity in mind. Value Jesus as the Pearl of Great Price. Sell all you have for Him! Also, value the things Jesus values... Living by faith, building your life on the Rock of Ages will cause you to live more fully in this life, and remain alive (be raised with Christ) though you die!
Finally, Faith = Follow-through. If you live a life of unrighteousness, the Bible says you are suppressing the truth (Romans 1:18). Your actions cannot continually undermine what you believe to be true. What you really, truly believe will always surface through your actions. Faith is not elusive and undefinable, its concrete and steadfast. It’s the foundation on which everything else is built.
On a funny side note, my 4-year-old son’s best friend is named Faith and its pretty much the cutest thing anytime I talk about faith. You can imagine the confusion. I would love to see what he is picturing when I talk to him about “living by faith”! He gets really excited to say the least!
I’ll leave you with this thought: “The wise woman builds her house [on faith], but the foolish pulls it down with her hands [and her words]” Proverbs 14:1, notes added. Build up your house, your husband, your children today Mommas! Do it with faith-lead follow-through = your words and actions! You’re the one to do it!
xoxo
Melody
ps. Check out my blog, Faith = Follow Through Pt. 2 to look at how we follow through not only through our actions... but also through rest.
**I like to use BibleStudyTools.com to look up the passage I am studying. Read it using the King James Version (KJV) and you will see a small gear icon on the top right corner above the passage. This is the “Scripture Formatting” tab. It will pull open a menu where you can change font size, font style, etc. and at the bottom, click on the box, “Strongs Numbers”. This will highlight key words in the passage, linking them to the Hebrew (OT) or Greek (NT) words and definitions. It will also show you other passages in scripture where this particular Hebrew or Greek word is used. This is a great tool for your personal Bible Study time!