當代著名的心理學家艾理斯（Albert Ellis）博士說：「一個人的信仰決定他的行為和性格。」我們今天的經文，是在艾理斯之前大約三千年寫下的，它以更簡潔的形式寫下了這個真理。

我們可以從兩種方向去思想生命──我們可以從哲學家、詩人或歷史學家的說話，歸納出生命的意義；我們亦可以從神的聖言中尋求人生的真相。我們或是相信神的話，為此而活，或是對它全然拒絕。如果我們認為先知不知道自己在說甚麼，而宇宙間根本沒有神跡這回事，那麼我們就會像希伯來書的作者昨天所告訴我們的──從敬虔的生活方式中退卻。然而，聖經的教導卻是要我們憑信心而活。

讓我們再次來聆聽神對哈巴谷所說的話：「惟義人因信得生」（哈二4）。信心，就是接受神的話，並且倚靠神的話。我們相信神所說的話，不為甚麼，只因為那是神自己說的。希伯來書十一章列出的信心偉人就是這麼做，他們並沒有甚麼理由去相信神所告訴他們的話，除了只是因為那是神所說的。為甚麼亞伯拉罕要帶兒子以撒上摩利阿山？為甚麼他準備將兒子獻為祭？只不過是因為神這麼說了。我認識有一個小男孩，有人問他「信心是相信神所說的話」這句話的意思時，他說：「因為神對祂自己所說的話有信心，所以我們也必須對神有信心。」

A man's belief," says Dr Albert Ellis, a well-known modern-day psychologist, "determines both his conduct and his character." Our text for today, written almost 3,000 years before Ellis, puts the truth in an even more succinct form.

There are two possibilities before each of us as we look at life: we can base our conclusions about the meaning of life on what the humanistic philosophers, poets and historians tell us, or we can base them on what God tells us in His Word. Either we take the Word of God and live by it - or we do not. If we take the attitude that the prophets didn't know what they were talking about and there are no such things as miracles in the universe, then we do what the writer to the Hebrews told us about yesterday - we draw back from the godly way of life. The Biblical way is living by faith.

Listen to the word given to Habakkuk once again: "The just shall live by his faith" (Hab. 2:4, AV). Faith is taking the Word of God and relying on it. It involves believing what God says, simply and solely because He said it. The heroes of faith listed in Hebrews 11 did just that - they had no real reason for believing what God told them, other than the fact that He had spoken. Why did Abraham take his son Isaac to Mount Moriah? Why did he prepare to offer him as a sacrifice? Simply because God had spoken. A little boy, when invited to comment on the statement, "Faith is having confidence in what God has spoken," said: "God has confidence in what He has said - so must we."