But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6 KJV
We are in a generation of the audible and the visible. We are moved by the things we hear or see, and the media helps to further those narratives by emphasizing those things that catch our sight and heart. The motivational speaker knows and exploits this; nothing wrong with challenging your thinking and seeking other ways to solve a problem, but when all that holds my heart down is only what my physical senses can perceive, I am indeed limited. Is all I am, have and know only that which I feel, touch, hear, taste, see or smell?
Beyond that which my physical senses can show me, God wants to show me the higher way of life. There is a level of walking with God that the physical senses cannot explain. All the men and women of the Bible mentioned in Hebrews 11 all had a personal encounter with God. No two people's stories are similar, but the end of all of them was the same: God reckoned with their walk with him because they knew him. They did not allow the physical circumstances of their lives dictate how they would live, but they lived like people who knew that God was in charge and could bring them to the place of fulfilling destiny.
Faith is a walk, not an abstract concept. Faith is seeing God in all situations of life, no matter how sweet or bitter the daily reality. Faith is the opposite of the excuse of the generation we are in now, which sees everything in the light of what I can get now or what I can put in my mouth now. Faith is holding on to God, no matter how long I am asked to, or even if I do not get what I seek till I die. Abraham was promised seed as many as the sands of the seashore yet based on God's promise, God gave him only 1 son. He did not live to see the full scope of that promise, but today, all who believe in Jesus claim the faith of Abraham.
No man can please God simply by relying on the convenient and comfortable, which is what the senses give us. We get some comfort when we can see or feel something, but we forget that this God can use the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. Pray me, how do you explain an iron axe head floating on water? How do you explain a man walking on water as Peter did, or how water was turned into wine? If I am waiting for the usual and the familiar, I will miss that which God has for me. There is a reward for men who seek God, and the reward has both earthly and eternal ramifications.
God does not call a man to seek him in vain. He does not call a man to himself and then leave the man to fend for himself. He takes me on a journey of the discovery of who He is, what he is and can do, then appeals to me to follow him. He has all the answers to all of life's questions, even the one he chooses not to answer, if any. He may give you an answer you do not like or one you do not recognise. He does not stop being God, and my life is better off for it when I allow Him do his work in and through me. I cannot come to God if I do not accept his leadership and authority over me. Taking him as Lord and Saviour is an admission that I believe in him completely, no matter what is ahead.
And God is not like men, unable to keep a promise. If he promises me a reward for seeking him, his nature is such that it is impossible for him to lie; He will do all that he has promised. I do have my own role to play in all these, but it will be clear that a reward lies at the end of the earthly experience. No matter what has gone before, what is happening now, or what is ahead, I rest in the knowledge that God never forgets his own. If I am truly His, I am safe. If I am not his own, eternity is at stake. Faith is that which guarantees that I will end well. Do I have faith, and is it in the right person? His time of favour is here.
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