Receiving a Good Report Through Faith (Episode 132)

The Bible contains numerous accounts of men and women who successfully walked with God while on earth. We share something in common with them. They successfully walked with God, and we are currently striving to do the same. This episode focuses our attention on the Old Testament servants whose faith enabled them to receive a good report. We do well to heed the biblical accounts of their lives, if we want to please God.

According to the writer of the book of Hebrews, these heroes of faith, “Having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise” (Hebrews 11:39, KJV). We tend to think that if someone says he has faith in God and he does not receive what he desired, he must not have had faith. According to the verse, however, these servants obtained a good report by faith--even though they did not receive the fulfillment of the promise.

It can be hard to remain faithful to God when you don’t receive what you are believing Him for. But that’s what real faith is all about.

So, what is the promise they did not receive? This is a reference to the promised coming of Jesus Christ. These faithful servants didn’t live to see the fullness of blessings that would come through the promised Messiah. Still, they remained faithful while living in anticipation of the Messianic promises given them.

Our Cloud of Witnesses

The writer refers to the men and women of faith mentioned in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, as our cloud of witnesses. He says we are “compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1). A witness is someone who has experienced or seen something firsthand.

The heroes of faith mentioned in the book of Hebrews are witnesses because they know firsthand what it takes to receive a good report through faith.

When you read the Word of God, imagine that you are stepping into an arena to run a race. And there is this big cheering squad of faith heroes rooting for you. Abraham is saying, “Keep the faith.” David is saying, “Worship the Lord.” Job is saying, “Endure the hardness.” Samuel is saying, “Obey the Lord.” Through what has been recorded of their faith journeys, they are saying you can do this because we did it.

Now imagine stepping into an arena to run a race, and you have no one cheering you along. That’s how it is when you fail to read the Word of God so these great men and women of faith can pour into you along the way. The truth is that to be a winner in the faith, you need to connect yourself with other winners in the faith.

From the beginning of the Bible until the end, we have testimony after testimony of real people who had real challenges. They walked with God by faith, and they overcame. According to the Bible, the things that happened to them were written for our examples.