When I think of substance, my mind often goes to bread. Bread just seems, well, substantial--the staff of life, our daily bread, the smell of hearth and home as it bakes in my kitchen. That I'm a synesthete who tastes words, and to me "substance" tastes like bread, only strengthens the connection.
Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is the substance of things hoped for,
and the evidence of things not seen. Speaking of bread, that is one of
the chewiest verses in scripture. We may think of faith
as abstract, a flighty thing that soars and crashes, even directionless in that
sometimes it lacks an object. (Faith in what, precisely?) But
we are told faith is substance and evidence--tangible
things. Faith is a force that pulls hope into reality, so much so that faith
doesn't just cause the reality but is the reality. The
evidence. The substance. Our hopes-come-true, manifested before us.
One of my other favorite chewy faith verses is Romans 14:23b
(NIV). "...everything that does not come from faith is sin." Just let
that, if you'll pardon me, digest. Everything. Everything. That
doesn't come from faith. Is sin. Faith is that serious.
That substantial.
This doesn't mean I'm sinning if I'm faced with a problem and am trying various alternatives I know may or may not work. But it does mean that
if I'm pretty doggone sure I shouldn't do something, even if that something
isn't sin in itself, I'm sinning if I do it. If, instead, I pray, hear from
God, and am released to take action, then that very same action (which will
produce substance!) is not sin, because it's performed in faith.
Faith. Now that is substance.
