Walking With the Lord — Devotional Series
If you have ever sat with a question like “what does it actually mean to have faith,” Hebrews 11 is the chapter for you. Rather than giving us a lecture on theology, it pulls back the curtain on real people who chose to trust a God they could not see, and shows us what that trust looked like in real life.
Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Rahab. These were not flawless people. They were ordinary men and women who faced fear, loss, uncertainty, and the unknown, and kept moving toward God anyway. Their stories are recorded not to impress us but to invite us into the same kind of walk.
Over the next six days, we move through this chapter together, one passage at a time. My prayer is that you leave not just more informed, but more stirred and more ready to trust God with your own life.
In this series
1 The Foundation of Faith |
2 The Faith That Obeys |
3 Steps Into the Unknown |
4 Holding Onto God’s Promises |
5 Trusting God With What We Love |
6 The Faith That Overcomes Fear |
Day 1
The Foundation of Faith
Hebrews 11:1–3
The Bible defines faith as confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Not feelings. Not proof. Confidence. Assurance. Faith is not about waiting until things make sense. It is about moving toward God even when they do not.
Many of us have never seen God or Jesus with our physical eyes. Still, we trust. We trust because His Word is alive, and when we read it, something on the inside of us recognizes it as truth. That is faith doing what it was designed to do.
“Faith is believing what you do not see and moving in its direction.”
What grows our faith is not just reading Scripture, but obeying it. The Holy Spirit stirs desires and burdens within us, and as we respond to those promptings with trust and obedience, we begin to experience God in a personal way. That experience deepens our faith even further. So faith and obedience are not separate things. They feed each other.
Here is something that shifted my thinking: God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. That means our flesh cannot truly worship God. Only our spirit can. So when we grow in faith, we grow in our capacity to worship, to connect with God, and to ascend into the things of the Spirit that are beyond what the natural mind can grasp.
And here is what sets believers apart in the kingdom: not how much they pray, not how much they give, but faith. Unmovable, unshakeable faith in a God who is real.
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)
What am I hoping for from God right now? What do I not yet see but have His assurance about?
Day 2
The Faith That Obeys
Hebrews 11:4–7
Verses 4 through 7 bring faith to life through three very different people: Abel, Enoch, and Noah. Their lives looked nothing alike, but they shared one thing in common. Each of them heard God and took a step. They did not wait for more information. They obeyed, and they trusted that God was working for their good.
Abel offered a sacrifice that was called righteous. It cost him his life. His brother’s jealousy led to his death, yet the Bible says Abel still speaks even today. There is something powerful about a life given fully to God, even when it is hard. It echoes beyond the grave.
“Faith that can move mountains pleases God and causes Him to act on our behalf.”
Enoch never experienced death. God simply took him because he pleased God. That is the kind of walk that comes from consistent trust and obedience over a lifetime. Enoch was not famous for dramatic miracles. He was faithful in the everyday. And God honored that.
Noah built a boat in a land with no rain in sight. He was likely mocked. He probably looked foolish. But his obedience saved his entire family. Walking by faith and not by sight is not just a nice phrase. It is the very thing that pleases the Father. And pleasing Him is worth everything.
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
Where is God asking me to step out in obedience today, even when I cannot see the full picture?
Day 3
The Faith That Steps Into the Unknown
Hebrews 11:8–12
Abraham left home without knowing where he was going. Sarah gave birth at an age when biology said it was impossible. Neither of them had a road map. They had a promise. And they moved.
That is the kind of trust that makes the impossible possible. When we take God at His word, we open the door for His promises to take shape in our lives. Through Abraham’s obedience, we are all his descendants. What looks impossible from where you are standing may be the very thing God is in the process of fulfilling.
“Our faith makes way for the impossible to become possible. It allows the promises of God to manifest in our lives.”
Taking a step of faith is not the end of the story. It is the beginning. When we step out in trust, we align ourselves with Christ, and we are never alone in that. Even when we cannot see how things will end, faith is the light that guides us forward.
And here is something worth sitting with: your step of faith might not only be for you. It might be a seed you are sowing for your children, or for generations you will never meet. Every act of obedience carries weight beyond what we can see.
“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”
Hebrews 11:8 (NIV)
What step is God inviting me to take today, even if I cannot see where it leads?
Day 4
The Faith That Holds Onto God’s Promises
Hebrews 11:13–16
Here is something that stopped me in my tracks when I read this section of Hebrews 11 more carefully. Verses 13 through 16 tell us that many of the patriarchs died without ever receiving what God had promised them. They saw the promises from a distance. They welcomed them. And they kept going anyway.
That challenges a lot of how we think about faith today. We can treat faith like a transaction, something we activate when we need something from God. But the people in this passage show us something deeper. Faith was not their emergency plan. It was their everyday life.
“Faith is not only needed when we need something from God. It should be a daily practice that allows us to be in daily alignment with Christ.”
God does not grant every prayer request on our timeline. So when faith is only about getting, it will eventually disappoint us. But when faith is about knowing God and staying close to Him, it becomes something that sustains us no matter the season.
What if we shifted our mindset from “God, give me” to “God, I trust You no matter what”? That shift moves us from a receiving relationship into a true partnership with Him.
“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.”
Hebrews 11:13 (NIV)
Am I treating faith as a daily practice or only reaching for it when I need something?
Day 5
The Faith That Trusts God With What We Love
Hebrews 11:17–22
Verses 17 through 22 show us faith at its most costly. Abraham was asked to offer Isaac, the very son through whom God had promised to fulfill His covenant. And Abraham went. He believed that even if Isaac died, God was able to raise him back. That belief is what made it possible for him to take that step.
Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all appear here too. Each of them acted in faith even as they were nearing the end of their lives. They were still pointing forward, still trusting, still speaking God’s promises over the generations to come. Faith was not something they saved for emergencies. It was woven into everything.
“A step of faith is always a step toward obedience. When we choose to have faith, we must also choose and be ready to obey our God.”
What this passage taught me is that faith and obedience cannot be separated. You cannot truly have one without the other. When we obey, especially in the seasons we do not fully understand, we position ourselves to experience God’s goodness in ways that would not otherwise be possible.
“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son.”
Hebrews 11:17 (NIV)
What is God asking me to trust Him with today? Is there something I am holding too tightly that needs to be placed in His hands?
Day 6
The Faith That Overcomes Fear
Hebrews 11:23–31
Moses, Rahab, and others in this final section had every reason to be afraid. Yet each of them chose trust over fear. And that choice changed everything.
There is a kind of fear that is actually the foundation of great faith. Not the fear that paralyzes, but the fear of the Lord, the deep reverence that places God above everything else in our lives. When we truly fear God, we begin to trust Him. And when we trust Him, we obey Him. The sequence looks like this: come to God, believe He exists, fear Him, trust Him, obey Him, walk in faith.
“The journey with God will not always be a smooth one, but with faith, we understand that every hard season is being used to train and equip us for greater works.”
God is all powerful, all knowing, and always present. Those attributes belong only to Him. That is why faith in God is not wishful thinking. It is grounded in who He actually is.
This week of studying this chapter has genuinely broadened my understanding. Too often in church culture, we treat faith as the tool we use to receive things from God. But what I see here is something richer. Faith keeps us close to God. It helps us receive direction and wisdom. It allows us to know Him more deeply and trust Him even when life gets hard.
The journey with God will not always be smooth. There will be seasons that are difficult and confusing. But those seasons are not the end of the story. They are part of the training.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding.”
Psalm 111:10 (NIV)
Where do I need to exchange fear for faith? How can I practice the fear of the Lord as the foundation for the trust He is asking of me?
Hebrews 11 and the Faith That Carries Us Forward
The men and women in Hebrews 11 were not extraordinary because they never struggled. They were extraordinary because they kept choosing to trust God in spite of the struggle. They did not have all the answers. They did not always see the end from the beginning. But they walked, and God honored every step.
As you close this series, my hope is that you leave not just more informed, but more stirred. Take one step. Trust God with one hard thing. Hold onto one promise. Your faith today is a seed being sown for tomorrow. Keep walking.
For more faith-based Bible teachings and devotionals, visit walkingwiththelord.net, and for marriage and family encouragement, visit blissfullywedded.com.
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