Faith Is Knowing

Faith is an amazing thing. On one hand it seems so strange, because it's all about things we can't experience with our senses, and on the other hand it's incredibly common. The vast majority of all the knowledge we have - things we claim "to know" and are proud about knowing - is actually based on faith. We weren't there, we didn't experience it, and we don't "know" it from our own journey of discovery. Someone told us, or we read about it, or through logic and deduction, we concluded - concluded what? That it's a fact, it's truth, and we totally accept it. How did that happen? We told ourselves, based on evidence and/or the testimony of others, that it's true and we believe it.
That is faith. It is simply what we tell ourselves and therefore choose to believe. Remember the classic Hebrews 11:1 definition of faith? "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Some quickly think of that as being weak and undependable, but it's the rule we live by. That guy driving his car straight at me, going sixty-five mph, will miss my car by several feet. I hope for that and feel sure about it, but I haven't seen it happen yet. Faith and trust makes us believe what our teachers, our parents, and our friends tell us about a world we haven't seen and a history we'll never experience. Faith is the backbone of cause and effect. I like what Philip Yancey said about faith. He said, "Faith is believing in advance what only makes sense in reverse."
We tell ourselves to believe things all the time. Why is it so hard for so many to see the evidence, live in hope, and be sure that the Son of God was raised from the dead? From an historical point of view, there is more proof and more eye witness testimony for the historical fact of the resurrection than there is for most of what fills our history books.
It just comes down to what you choose to tell yourself and then believe.