And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6

Background
The early Church was known for very high levels of faith — but why???  It should not be surprising, they had either seen Jesus or met people that had.  But even more, they had learned what “they will know you are my disciples if you love one another” actually meant because they saw it in action.  God also highlights many people in the Old Testament Tanakh) that have strong faith such as Abraham, Elijah, Moses and David.  All of these people made huge life decisions because of faith.

Hebrews 11 is called the “Hall of Faith” because lists a bunch of people that had true faith.  But what is important is that God did not ask them and does not ask them or us to have “blind faith”.  Instead, He gives all the info we need to have a “reasonable faith” (faith based on experience).  It is reasonable faith that when you flip the switch, the light will come on because it is based on experience.

Faith is like a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it grows.  God calls us to prioritize the two greatest commandments.  When we do that in faith, we see blessings in ways that helps us trust Him even more.

What it meant to the original audience
The audience of Hebrews was initially Jewish Christians.  These were people that had deep understanding of what God had done the last 1,500 years including all the people in the Hall of Faith.  Now they were being asked to completely change their understanding of the core of what God is doing.  And doing so would come at great cost for many of them.  They needed to lean heavily on reasonable faith and the Spirit.  To those that did, God would provide peace and purpose in the midst of the storm they would experience.

For us today
Today, depending on where you live in the world, your background experience will likely be much different than the early Church.  Whatever culture you are in, God likely conflicts with it in some very important ways.  Sometimes those differences are very offensive to others.  Learning how to live the two greatest commandments in love can be a challenge.  But with the help of the Word and the Spirit, we can find it more rewarding than anything the world has to offer!

Trusting God brings joy to Him and blessings to us.