Faith pleases God. From mustard seed faith to unwavering faith, He welcomes it in His presence. The only faith He will not tolerate is wavering faith. Because as we learned previously in the book of James, wavering faith is the same as having no faith at all. Hebrew 11:6 warns us that, “Without faith, it is impossible to please Him”.
God doesn’t ask much of us. He created us out of love because He is love. His agape love is totally unconditional. Well, with the exception of one little teeny-weeny thing; that we seek Him diligently. Verse 6 continues to tell us, “for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that (diligently) seek Him”. Imagine that. What an awful thing for God to ask of us. After a long stressful day at work, He wants us to sit a spell with Him, reading and studying the bible, praying and meditating on His word, allowing Him to remove all that stress of the day away so that we can have the peace that passeth all understanding (Philippians 4:7), and life more abundantly. (John 10:10) All of this just so we can go to Him asking and believing that He will supply our every need. (Philippians 4:19)
Emulating The Children
In Matthew chapter 6, when Jesus is teaching on the proper order of prayer, He tells us to begin with reverencing ‘Our Father which art in heaven’. Hence the scripture: “except ye become converted and become as little children”. (Matthew 18: 3) What does this mean? Perhaps it can be better explained in an example. When we were young, we looked to our earthly father for everything. We believed he knew everything. And so, we asked him everything. In reverencing God as our Heavenly Father, we much recognize that He is the Creator who made everything, knows everything, and therefore, we should ask everything of Him. Just like our earthly father provided for us when we were children, our Heavenly Father will provide for us when we come to Him as His children; believing in Him without doubting, the way we believed in our earthly fathers. Jesus says in this same chapter that The Father already knows what we need before we even approach Him. (Matthew 6:8) So, the purpose of asking is simply to activate our God-pleasing faith, putting our faith to work. In doing so, acknowledging that He is our true Father and we depend on Him to supply our need in every aspect of our lives.
God’s Simple Algorithm
The Creator has a plan for each of us collectively and individually. Collectively, He assures us in Jeremiah 29:11- “For I know the thoughts I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Individually, He lets us know that He is invested in us from before we are born. Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee”. He has developed a simple algorithm for our daily use that is instrumental in building a relationship with Him and activating a faith that is pleasing to Him: BELIEVE>SEEK>RECEIVE. Believe that He is. Believe He is a rewarder. Seek Him passionately. Receive what you believe. How much simpler can He make it for us?
The one thing I’m learning to keep reminding myself of is that nothing surprises God. It never has. It never will. Everything that has ever happened was in His knowledge base before it occurred. The perfect example: “having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself” (Ephesians 1:5) even before the fall of man through Adam. Comforting myself in this fact and believing that a favorable end to whatever I’m going through is already in place leaves me in an immense state of peace.
But First, God
Sometimes, the spiritual walk appears complicated. Latching on to the concept of an Entity that cannot be seen is challenging. Putting our trust in Him proves to be even more conflicting. How can we trust someone whom we cannot see or have never seen? But that is exactly where faith comes into play. When Christ visited the disciples after His resurrection and they told Thomas about His visit, Thomas said he would not believe unless he touched Jesus’ wounds. (John 20:27) Jesus provided Him the opportunity to do just that. After that Jesus proclaimed in verse 29; “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” This is the part that makes our relationship with God so special; that we not only can believe in Him but do believe in Him even though we have not seen Him. Because we believe, our mentality must always be ‘But First, God'. This simply means that before we say or do (whatever), we seek God’s acceptance and approval first. We are careful in all of our actions not to offend Him. And when we slip up and do offend Him, we sincerely repent for our trespass against Him. This is the topic and title of my next blog. It should prove to be quite interesting as I attempt to convey the proper order of things by putting God first.
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. John 14:1
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