Without Faith

I want to share a verse that you probably already know by heart. In my opinion, it is one of the most impactful verses in the Bible. It is required reading for any new believer, and a good reminder for even the most mature believer. It is from Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6, which says:

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

It takes faith to believe that God exists. It takes faith to believe in the Bible. And it takes faith to believe that there will be eternal rewards for those who earnestly seek God. This is Christianity 101. The very first step is to believe, or have faith, because without faith it is impossible to please God. Impossible. How do we increase our faith? Well, Romans 10:17 reminds us that: “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The more we read the Bible, the more our faith will grow. So, my question to you is, how is your faith? Does it falter? Does it change depending on your circumstance or what other people tell you about God? Faith is the foundation of every believer. Everything is built upon it. The Bible tells us that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus. If we don’t believe in him and what he did for us, then the door to heaven is closed to us. So I encourage you to read the Bible daily to increase your faith. Build on the foundation that is the very cornerstone of being a believer in Christ.

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“Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Do you have faith today? Do you believe that God exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him? If you do, then are you earnestly seeking him? Are you praying continually? Are you thinking on heavenly things continually? Are you reading your Bible daily? And are you taking up your cross daily and following him? Our walk with God, and our faith in him, needs to be a daily relationship. Just like we need food for our body, we need food for our soul. And if we miss a meal, we should know it. We’ll become weak, disoriented, and uncomfortable. So I encourage you today to take your walk seriously and to earnestly seek the one you claim to believe in.

Self-Righteous

If you are a child of the Spirit, you see things differently than those who are a child of the world. Life encourages us to succeed, to compete and to be proud of our achievements. These things, in and of themselves may not be bad, but we respond differently depending on whether we’re behaving as children of the world or children of the Spirit. If our thoughts and aspirations aren’t filtered through the Bible and the Holy Spirit, they can become clouded by fleshly desires resulting in an unhealthy view of who we are. And when believers, even the strongest and most mature of us, begin to allow worldly aspirations in our heart, it could reveal itself in self-righteousness. We may find ourselves competing in the most holy of things, losing our path and becoming the very thing we are trying to avoid. Jesus warns us about that with the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. It says in Luke 18, verse 9:

“To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:”

Jesus goes on to talk about a Pharisee, one assumed to be a man of God, approaching the temple proclaiming in his self-righteousness how happy he is that he is not like other sinners, and how proud he is of his righteous acts. Then a tax collector humbles himself before God with a broken spirit acknowledging that he is a sinner in need of mercy. Then Jesus proclaims that it was the tax collector who went home justified before God. Life teaches us to compare ourselves to others and to aspire to be the best. But Jesus reminds us that when we see things through his eyes, humility and a broken spirit are how we are to respond to the world and especially to a Holy God.

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True believers should never be self-righteous, because true believers know that even on our best day our righteousness is like filthy rags before the Father. Our flesh makes us prone to sin and predisposed to desires that are contrary to the Spirit. When we are honest with ourselves, we understand that because we are humans in a fallen world, we aren’t much different than anyone else. As followers of Christ our job isn’t to judge, to look down on others or to elevate ourselves. Our job is to keep our eyes on God, to act in love and humility, with grace and mercy towards others as we try to reflect God’s nature as opposed to our fleshly, self-righteous nature.

Cherish Sin

Does Satan have a stronghold in your life where you find yourself battling a habitual sin that you can’t seem to shake? He might have beaten you down so badly with shame and addiction that you feel like you’ll never be free of it. Or, you may have grown so accustomed to your sin, that you’ve learned to justify it to a point that it doesn’t even prick your conscience anymore. If that is you; if Satan has his hooks in you but you’ve decided to accept that you’ll never be free, I challenge you not to give up. Set aside the shame, humble yourself, and continue to pray and believe that Jesus will set you free. Because the more you grow comfortable with your sin, the more you are distancing yourself from God. In Psalm chapter 66, verses 18 and 19, the psalmist shares these words:

“If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer.”

You see, we can’t comfortably continue in our sin, and think that our prayers will be effective. If we cherish sin in our heart, this psalmist says that the Lord will not listen. There is support for this truth in other areas of the Bible as well, explaining that God may not hear the prayers of those who cherish sin in their hearts, but the prayers of the righteous will avail much. So I challenge you not to cherish, or love, the sin in your heart. Because if you do, the Lord will not listen to you, and your separation from God will grow. Do what the psalmist did. Allow the Spirit to clean your heart. Then God will surely listen and hear your voice in prayer.

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Our spiritual unfaithfulness has a greater effect on our relationship with God than we might think. When we are spiritually far from God, he is spiritually far from us. But once we repent; once we humble ourselves before the Lord with a broken spirit, he will forgive us, restore us, listen to us and “hear the voice of our prayer”, as the psalmist puts it. So I challenge you not to cherish sin in your heart. Learn to see sin as God sees it; as evil and a vice that separates you from him.

His Workmanship

Do you believe that God created you for a purpose? Before answering too quickly, I want you to really give thought to that question. Do you really believe that God created you for a purpose? Preachers tell us that there is a purpose to our life, your parents may have even said this to you, and even some unbelievers might say it from time to time, but do you believe it? I know that I do, and Paul would agree as he puts it this way in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 which says:

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Paul says that we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works. He even says that God prepared his plan for you in advance. In effect, Paul might be saying that God had a plan for your life before you were even born. If that is true; if God does have a plan for you, then what is it? Well, it is to do “good works”. What that looks like for you may be totally different than what it looks like for me. But the point is that there is a plan. And if there is a plan, are you fulfilling it? If you’re not sure, I encourage you to pray to God and find out what his plan for your life is. It certainly isn’t for you to do nothing. I believe that his plan for your life is to, in some way, impact the kingdom of heaven. I believe that his plan for every believer is to make ripples in eternity by reaching out to our fellow man through the power, love and encouragement of the Spirit.

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Were you created for a purpose? Is there a plan for you life? Yes there is. Your job is to find out what that is. Paul tells us that “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”. I pray that you seek out what “good works” God has planned for you to accomplish. If you do, you will find no greater pleasure, no greater satisfaction, than being within his will and being used by him for his glory.

Be Adults

I don’t know for sure, but I have a sneaking suspicion that most Americans who call themselves Christians have never advanced in their faith beyond infancy. Some may have never read the word of God for themselves, others may be spiritually conflicted due to the liberal ideology we receive from the media and society in general, and still others may be content with merely dipping their toe into what it means to be a Christ-Follower. As a result, I believe that many who call themselves Christians do not understand the Bible enough, or have grown in their faith enough, to think and understand the deeper things spoken of in the Bible and have never advanced beyond the elementary things. Paul warns the Corinthians about this in first Corinthians chapter 14 verse 20 which says: 

“Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.”

This is found buried in Paul’s teaching about the gifts of prophesy and speaking in tongues. Now, I realize that there have been heated debates as to whether speaking in tongues still happens today, and even what it means to “speak in tongues”. But my question to those who would quickly dismiss the phenomenon is, “if you have a problem with speaking in tongues, what will you do if God decides to do something really crazy?” To have the faith to believe in the miraculous goes beyond thinking like a child. It is the realization that God sets the rules, God sets the boundaries, and at any time and in any way that lines up with his word and his character, he can choose to move. So I encourage you not to put God in a box, because when we decide that there are limits to what God will and will not do, I believe that we are actually revealing our lack of faith.

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Like Paul says, we need to advance in our faith and stop thinking like spiritual children. Yes, we are to be inexperienced - or infants - when it comes to evil, but with regards to the deeper things of God; the things that stretch our faith and grow our understanding of who he is, we should be adults. I encourage you to filter what you hear and learn about God through the Bible aided by the Holy Spirit. Then open your mind and understanding to a mighty God whose power and influence are limitless. If you do, you might be able to stretch your faith in such a way, that God will move in your life in ways that are beyond what you can think or ask.