When my daughter Ashley was eight I took her snow-skiing for the first time. She was a little timid athletically, and our first run down the mountain took two hours. During our second run, she became frightened when she hit a patch of ice. She wouldn't move, so I took her little face in my hands and I said, "Ashley, does Daddy love you?"
Through the tears came, "Uh-huh."
"Are you afraid of going over the ice?"
More tears, "Uh-huh."
"Ashley, Daddy doesn't want you to crash and burn any more than you do. I love you, Ashley. I'm going to do my best to make sure we don't hit any of the ice. Now, come on and follow me."
I turned my skis downhill and moved out slowly. And guess who was right behind me, all the way down, beaming, right in my tracks?
In this case, Ashley knew that one thing was truer than her fear: Her daddy loved her and would protect her. Her faith enabled her to take action. And as a result, she was encouraged. She had hope.
In the same way, we need to know that our heavenly Father loves us if we are to trust Him with our lives. How can we trust that which we do not know? In other words, how can you exhibit faith in God if you don't know Him?
Faith is a process. To develop that "assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1), you need to have knowledge. Knowledge comes before conviction. And that knowledge of God primarily comes from Scripture.
Faith is not blind hope that you throw in the wind. Faith is only as good as its object. It is confidence, a conviction based on the knowledge that God and His Word are true.
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