Hebrews 11

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  v.1

Read chapter 11
The faith hall of fame chapter.  This chapter starts out with what appears to be the definition of the word faith followed by examples of people of faith in the past.  Now faith is not just hoping in something that you want, but faith is having ground or substance for our hope.  People today use the word faith very flippantly rather than what it means in scripture.  For example someone may say "I have faith God's going to bring me a new car," but if God hasn't said that it's not really faith the person has, rather it's a desire or hope without any foundation in a promise God has said.  That person may trust God, but trust and faith are not the same. It all comes down to believing what God has said or written as Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing the message and hearing by the word of God."  God causes us to hope with expectation.  Bible scholar E.W. Bullinger says in his commentary of Hebrews 11, "If we have heard nothing, there can be nothing to believe.  There is neither place nor room for faith.  We may think it, or imagine it, or hope for it; but we cannot possibly believe it, because we have not heard anything about it.  Our hopes and thoughts and imaginations are all vain, being without any 'foundation.'"  So asking questions like do you believe God will ____?  Ought to better be asked WHOM or WHAT do you believe.  After all belief and faith are the same Greek word pistis.  We can trust God to protect us or trust Him to lead us or trust Him to be with me when I make decisions in my life whether good or bad, but when we're not protected or when we're led down a bad path do we then stop trusting in God?  So easily this is what happens to people, yet they were putting words in to God's mouth so-to-say of what He never said.  Each one of the people listed in this chapter of having faith all had a word from God and responded accordingly and they didn't even receive the promise following their faith (v.39).
How do you see the difference between trust and faith?  Who of these listed does their faith impact you most?

There's an amazing book of about 500 pages written solely on this one chapter called The Great Cloud of Witnesses by E.W. Bullinger that I highly recommend as it walks through in-depth each person mentioned in this chapter's faith.