What really amazes me about the word faith is how much it encompasses! It's not just trust or belief, which are two different things that become one in the word "faith." It also brings in "loyalty." And this is the shade that more often than not becomes dominant when it's used of God (i.e. his faithfulness). The Hebrews 11 definition isn't exhaustive because, if you apply that definition to God, it doesn't make sense (does he hope for something he can't see?) and it doesn't really tie in the loyalty factor as strongly as when the word is used in the bible to describe faithfulness to something. So "faith" not only seems to blend in concepts of trust and belief in something, but also a commitment to what you trust and believe in. Loyalty.
What still bothers me though is that when it's used of God, there has to be some kind of trust or belief tied into it, otherwise they would just say God's loyalty, right? What belief or trust is God loyal to? Himself? He's committed to trusting himself? To believing in himself? I'm still fleshing it out, but either all three concepts of "faith" are still tied together in "faithfulness," or it could be that faith and faithfulness just overlap in the area of commitment/loyalty; that when you speak of "faithfulness" you are just bringing in the concept of loyalty/commitment and pushing aside the trust/belief, making loyalty, commitment, and faithfulness complete synonyms, 100% interchangeable.
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