When it comes to faith in God, Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church says people have to employ a little bit of imagination.
Warren writes on his website that if people can't see something physically, they have to imagine it in their minds. And since people cannot see God, imagination is very essential to living by faith.
"Faith is when we hope for something, and we know it's going to happen. In order to hope for something, you have to picture it in your mind," he says.
Warren then shared the Bible verse Hebrews 11:1 which says, "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."
"Hebrews 11 is God's Hall of Fame. When you read through the heroes of faith, you realise that every one of them became heroes of faith because they used their imagination," shares Warren.
As an example, Warren uses the story of Abraham. God told him, "You're 90 years old, and you have no kids. But I'm going to change your name from Abram to Abraham, which means 'father of a great nation.'"
God told him to go outside at night to count the stars, because that is how many grandchildren and great grandchildren he is going to be blessed with. According to Warren, when God told Abraham to count the stars, he was not sending Abraham on a fool's mission. He is simply telling him: "I want you to visualise what I'm going to do in your life."
Abraham cannot physically see the future, but he is nonetheless assured of God's promise. In the same way, Warren says that people cannot see the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but they are still going to last for eternity.
"You can't see your own soul, but it's going to last for eternity," he adds. "The Bible says you need to focus on the things that will last — the things you can't actually see with your eyes. So how do you focus on things you can't see? You use your imagination."
