The author ties chapter 10 to chapter 11, by explaining what this faith is that we need to be able to endure. Faith is knowing what we believe is real, and a certainty that our hopes will be realized. Conviction=certainty. Commendation=acknowledgment.
The author only made it through the 6th book of the Bible, listing heroes of faith, before running out of time!
Faith is knowing the things we hope for will happen. (not the fingers crossed kind, but the looking ahead with confidence kind). The people under the Old Testament had to look forward in confident hope toward the Messiah to receive their acknowledgment of righteousness.
A few of my favorite heroes—
Abel knows what God requires (the shedding of blood) and God acknowledges his faith. Noah knew when God spoke it was truth, and he acted on it by building the ark in advance of an unprecedented rain and judgment. God acknowledged Noah’s faith by making him a straight line, an example of righteousness by which the rest of the world was judged and found lacking. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son, on whom the Entire Promise hinged, because he knew God would either provide a better sacrifice or would raise him from the dead. Joseph knew that his people would eventually be delivered from Egypt and asked that his bones be carried to the promised land. Moses wasn’t afraid of the pharaoh because he saw the power of God leading the way. So many other faithful people who were killed by the people they were longing to reach. The world was not worthy. These people of the Old Testament, so full of faith, did not see the promise, because God had something even better for us. They looked forward to the coming of Christ Jesus through the shadow of the Old Testament. We look back to the sacrifice of Christ Jesus through the revelation of the New Testament. Together, we look toward the promise of a city, designed and built by the God who loves and redeems us all. (#bettertogether before it was trendy 
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This chapter changes me because the lives of these people were real. Their allegiance to God, without seeing, makes me cringe at my own. I want to care less about the comforts of this life. I want to be like Moses, looking past the wealth of the world and seeing the invisible God, who can speak the world into existence with a single word. I want to be like Rahab who, in spite of her circumstances, boldly proclaimed God as the one true God of heaven and earth. And I want to be me, Alicia; -daughter, wife, mother,grandmother, sister, friend-whose story is somehow part of His plan. And let God not be ashamed to be called my God.
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