About Hope and Faith, Like White on Rice:

They Just Come Together.

I grew up at a time and a place where there was rice served for dinner, and it was white.  Now, I did not say that rice was served with dinner, but I did say there was rice served for dinner.  I am sure that brown rice, and other different ways of serving rice did exist long before that time. Anyway, I was raised by my parents, mainly my mother, to be in Sunday school and Church every Sunday; therefore, I heard a lot of teaching and preaching on hope and faith.  There was the standard teaching on keeping your hope alive by hearing and reading the scriptures when you can, for God will supply your need.  Then there was also in the breath that followed how we should keep the faith by believing in God to supply our need. So, we had the hope teaching, and we had the faith teaching at the same time as though it was up to us to work out each manually on our own.  Yeah, hope and faith were usually taught or preached at the same time, but not as partners designed to just come together on their own. In other words, when I saw rice back in the day where I grew up, I saw it white.  It was nothing else for me to do outside of having the rice, for the rice would just come with the white.  When there are lessons taught on hope and faith at the same time, it is not usually taught that faith is just coming together with your hope anyway, as long as you just have the hope. So once there are things that we hoped for, how do we receive the faith to work together with the hope to bring those things to pass? Does the faith substance just come together with the hope like white on rice, or do we at the same time work out the hope and the faith apart to bring them together? This is the question to be answered, and the beginning of my mission to assist with the hearing of the faith that does indeed come together with the hope.

My Awareness to Assist with Hearing Faith Is Born.

How do you know when the faith that comes together with the hope, has come? You will know when the faith has come because you will hear the faith when it comes.  And how do I know this to be true?  One way that I know this is that the Bible says it in Romans 10:17, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Now here I was years later after high school and college with diploma and BS degree in hand, but still not aware that hope and faith comes together by spiritual design to bring to pass the things that we hope for. The teaching, and preaching from my Baptist upbringing had really prepared me pretty good from a practical, and from a foundational perspective to understand that hope and faith should still be talked about at the same time.  The thing that was about to be born in me is that hope, and faith were spiritual teammates; and that where one (hope) comes, the other (faith) would be on call also to come on its own, by design. We have always known that the two were spiritual teammates; however, society has generally taught that we equip ourselves with skills, education, developed talent, God given gifts, etc. as it should teach us.  The equipping of these good things is correct to be done, but these things, and not faith, continue to be the standard by which our hope is fulfilled to bring to pass the things we hope for.  All of these things which we have equipped ourselves with are great, and by the way, I have obtained quite a few of them myself along the way.  The disconnect from the spiritual advantage of being so equipped is that we have made them so relevant to supplying our need. It is to the point to where we are not listening to hear the actual faith substance when it does come to fulfill the particular hope job at hand. In taking a line from one of my favorite movies to model this statement after, “the such good replacements” still come from the natrix, or the natural; therefore, they can still only come “so far” to our rescue. Then at that point, do we have a keep ready trained ear to hear how to finish the distance still left to go with spiritual help; or now, do we have a less ready relaxed ear as we are still looking for “the such good replacements” to finish the distance still left to go that is beyond their limit of “so far,” in which they have already reached on this particular hope job? 

We in America can get away with depending on “the such good replacements” to bring to pass the things hoped for. They are more readily available to us more so than to people with or without faith in many of the less developed nations around the world. If I have a degree, a good job, and a working spouse for starters, then I should be able to have at least a decent livelihood if decision making is in line with my means.  I don’t really need faith on a regular basis if I have equipped myself with these good things, “the such good faith replacements.”  Even a broke, or homeless person in America has more of a chance of getting a good meal, and a night’s rest from time to time just by knowing the correct address to drop in. That person can get these things now rather than looking to have the faith to bring them to pass whenever without knowing an address. The two are not the same animal. If I have the correct address of a drop-in center in which I know to have these things, and thank God for the drop-in centers; then I just need to drop by to get them based on my knowledge and not my faith.  

When we are depending on faith to get the things that we hope for, then faith’s definition says that we currently have no evidence yet of how to bring them to pass. Many of us at times, like the broke or homeless person, are not equipped with “the such good faith replacements” to have the things hoped for now. This is when we need to keep ourselves from also not being equipped, and disadvantaged as well by faith standards on the spiritual side. Remember Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. “ The faith substance from the spiritual side requires the person to have hope; therefore, when we are out of “the such good faith replacements, it’s time to go hybrid. We are suppose to operate on “the such good faith replacements” as much as we can: however, we need to always keep our Hope in God in our spiritual tank because those other good replacements can only go “so far.” So I learned to keep faith on auto pilot by keeping my hope in God alive even when I am highly blessed. This is the key to having faith substance ready to come to your rescue to bring to pass that which you hope for, because everything else can only go “so far.”