(We were blessed to have Dr. B. J. Pruitt with us for the weekend. He is the Apostolic covering for our church and my pastor personally. I wanted to highlight a few things that were said over the weekend in this week’s blog. You will be able to download the messages from our website, www.livingwordgreene.com, shortly.)
Hebrews 11:6 ( NKJV )
But 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 diligently seek Him.
We have been discussing the need for an active faith in God this week. We have looked at the fact that we live in perilous times and in these times we need faith to see us through. We looked at the woman with the issue of blood from Mark 5 and how she pressed through fear and risk to touch Jesus and make a faith demand on his power. We looked at Nehemiah and discovered how he rejected comfortable bondage to rise up in faith and do something significant for the Kingdom of God.
Today I want to touch on the above verse. It is a very important statement. It is a statement that needs little interpretation. If we are going to be pleasing to God we must have faith. This faith must be active enough to gain reward from God. Without faith nothing we do is truly pleasing to Him. Why? Without faith all that we do is done outside the dynamic of relationship. I do something that I think is pleasing to God. I do it in my strength. I present it to God and think He is pleased with me. He is not.
You see faith is first and foremost a matter of relationship. God wants to be involved in my life. He doesn’t want me to simply do things for Him, he wants me to do things with Him. Faith is the ability to connect with God. Faith is how my relationship with him works. Without that connection no matter what I do I cannot please Him.
This scripture provides some keys to how this works. First I must believe that He is. That seems rather obvious on the surface, but let’s consider it a little more closely. How do I know that He is? Why do I really believe that God exists? You might say that you believe it because you were taught to believe it. That is true to a point, but that kind of faith won’t stand the test or real pressure. As a born again Christian I believe that He is really there because I have met him. So the beginning of God pleasing faith is that I must have met Him in Salvation.
The second thing it says here is that I must believe that He will reward me if I seek Him. I must believe that God is not only there but that He cares for me. I must believe that He is involved with me. I must believe that if I trust His word He will keep his word and meet every need. I must believe that we are partners together in life and that He is active in every area of the life that I am living. This is God pleasing faith.
How does that come to me. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17.) As I go to the promises of God I have something to believe. I begin to understand what the reward is and how to access it. I learn who God really is and what He will and will not do. I learn who he expects me to be and the conditions associated with the reward I seek.
Make a decision to walk in God pleasing faith today. You will begin a path that is more exciting and powerful than you can possibly imagine.
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