Faith as Substance

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.