Part of inward religion is our vision of God’s future. Faith
is not only the “conviction of things not seen,” it is also
“the substance of things hoped for” (11:1, kjv), because the
things hoped for are things that have not yet been seen. The
author of the epistle to the Hebrews goes on to illustrate
this point in the rest of chapter 11 by giving examples of
those who lived in hope of the unseen things that God had
promised. Abraham and Sarah come first: Abraham set out
for a place he had never seen; Sarah conceived a child in her
old age, another event “not seen” beforehand.
On the one hand, our bodies and brains react against
this idea: Synapses develop in our brains in such a way that
old habits and old ways of thinking become familiar and
comfortable, and we find it difficult to think beyond the
things that we are accustomed to seeing. On the other hand,
humans delight in breaking stereotypes and conventions.
Part of the role that the visual arts play is to challenge the
usual ways we think, to open up new connections and
thoughts and possibilities for us. The visual arts help us to
“see”—not that which is merely imaginary but that which
has been “unseen” as yet.
Part of the regular discipline of the spiritual life, then,
must be to envision new futures that God intends for us.
We are not eternally stuck in a cycle: God is already out
front with new hopes and dreams and ideas. The challenge
of faith is to allow ourselves (regularly!) to be startled  by God's surprising plans and to live according to that faith.
By Ted Campbell from The Upper Room: 60 Days of Prayer for General Conference 2016