Although the Bible constantly speaks about faith, there is only one passage in the Bible that offers an explicit definition of faith.
As stated in Hebrews 11:1,
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (ESV) Or, in another translation, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (NIV)
Faith, then, is not the denial of reality. It is not a convenient escape mechanism for those who want to put their heads in the sand.
Instead, faith takes hold of the highest reality — the reality of the unseen realm, the reality of God.
But for that very reason, it is faith: because we do not see it with our physical eyes or experience it with our physical senses.
Yet, to repeat, faith is not the denial of reality, an escape mechanism for the weak-minded. To the contrary, it is an unshakable confidence that there is a higher reality than what our physical senses can discern, a higher reality that is just as real (in fact, even more real) than anything in this natural realm...