The Faith That Pleases God

Scripture:  Hebrews 11:6 - 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.
God’s greatest desire and pleasure is to be believed by us.  He has limited us to one supreme way to have a relationship with Him.  Our present text for devotion declares that no one can ever please God without faith.  It is His gift to us that allows us to lay hold to the invisible realities of His existence and activities in our lives, as well as in the world around us (Hebrews 11:1).

It pleases God because through it we come to Him.  It is the only way through which we can reach beyond ourselves toward Him. “He who comes to God ‘MUST’ believe that He is…” expresses how essential and exclusive this coming has to be.  He who comes to God in genuine faith must have a centrality of focus on the true and living God alone.  We cannot please God when we have a dualistic kind of faith that is trying to trust Him with something/someone of equal or greater confidence.  This kind of mixed up faith is called by God “doublemindedness” in James 1:5-8.  It is a distracted and divided confidence that has a flawed view of who God is to us in a personal way.  Coming is our personal responsibility to the God of our faith.  He is pleased because it is our response of obedience to His invitation and expectation for all who confess believing on Him.  Faith is the acceptance of His personal invitation to come to Him.  Genuinely coming to God says with our actions that “YOU ARE”, and we believe it even though we do not see Him with our fleshly eyes.

To believe that God is, or that He exists, is only the entrance into a faith relationship with Him.  This faith must grow to rest upon the fact that God not only exists, but He is everything that He says He was, is, and shall forever be.  Only on this level of growth can our faith rest in the truth that God is whatever He says He is to us personally and that the vast resources of who He is has been promised and made available to all who come to Him through faith in the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.  Faith not only embraces the fact that “GOD IS” in His existence, but “GOD IS” in His presence with us.  Psalm 46 refers to Him as a “present help”.  Our faith must rest on the reality of His personal presence in us that He will never forsake (Hebrews 13:5).

The challenge of faith in God for us is that it requires effort, energy, and endurance in our pursuit of the depths of relationship with Him.  It makes us leave the comfort zone of self-reliance to seek a special resting place in the experience of Him.  The prize of our faith is that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him, because we have come to understand that He is the reward of our diligence.  Though faith looks to Him for what He can do for us in relationship to our needs, it recognizes that our greatest need is to apprehend the experience of the true and living God in our lives.

Prayer:  Father God, through the Lord Jesus we come in faith believing with all of our hearts that You are all to us that You have said and promised.  Your love for us and willingness to give Yourself for us and to us is far more than we can ever deserve.  It is this realization that melts my heart in great gratitude for the privilege to draw near and intimately know You in relationship.  I admit that I am limited in my ability to ascend in my knowledge of You, but I am open to whatever the rewards are in experiencing the fullness of You, in Jesus Name, amen.  Hallelujah.

(by Pastor Wayne Cockrell)