Friday, November 6, 2015

November 7, 2015

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." Hebrews 11:6

In a chapter filled with stories of impossible things that happened by faith, I find it fascinating that the most impossible thing that faith accomplishes is pleasing God! Of all the fantastic feats of faith featured in Hebrews 11, the one that mattered most to these Heroes of Faith was gaining the pleasure of God! That was their greatest reward! He was (and is) their greatest reward!

What are you hoping to accomplish through your faith?

Meditating on this inspiring notion I was able to identify several satisfying rewards of faith! I would like to share them with you in the hope they will bless you as they bless me!

Reward One: RELATIONSHIP!

God created you for Himself. As Pascal declared, "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, and it can never be filled by any created thing. It can only be filled by God made known through Jesus Christ."

The greatest reward you can receive is the mercy, grace and pleasure of God flooding your soul and filling the void in your life. Knowing about God is one thing but knowing God in a very personal intimate relationship is the joy of faith!

You can receive everything else your vain ambition may crave but unless you receive a relationship with God through Christ it will never satisfy! 

Reward Two: REALITY!

Because you are created for God, you are created for eternity. As Paul articulated in II Corinthians 4:18 - "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" what is eternal is what is real!

Living in time with a physical body, your world is defined by your five senses, your environment and your education. So, when you think of what is real you define it in terms of what you can see, touch, hear, taste and intellectually understand. Despite how vast the physical universe may be, it is still a reality defined by time and space.

God created you for and calls you to a greater reality! We find that greater reality when we find Him and when we put our faith in His Word! What He says through His Word is real not what you see with your eyes. It enables you to change the current reality but your connection with the greater reality! That is precisely what Abraham did and Noah did and Moses did "by faith"!

How do we link the reality we live in to the reality we believe in? FAITH! That's what faith is! that's what faith does! Faith ushers you into an existence that is not limited by physical restrictions. It allows you to hope! It allows you to cope! It allows you to transcend the evil and the brokenness of this world! That is what Jesus meant when He taught you to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!"

By the way, faith itself, even though it connects you to the eternal reality, is itself temporary! When you take your last breath in time and inhale eternity you will live by sight so faith will hold no further value for you!

Reward Three: RIGHTEOUSNESS!

A third reward of faith is righteousness. Righteousness means being made right with God!  It has a spiritual aspect to it. Without faith you trapped in your sinful human nature. That nature is spiritually dead because it is separated from a life-giving God Who is holy aka sinless. Unrighteousness is deceived in its thinking and incapable of distinguishing truth from lies. Since God is truth that creates a problem.

Righteousness also has a legal aspect to it. Because you are born a sinner separated from God you are judged legally guilty before God and condemned to eternal suffering. Jesus, Who was righteous and without sin went to the cross and took your sin upon you Himself to take the penalty for your sin. When by faith, you receive God's gift of salvation you are forgiven of your sins and He declares you "not guilty". At that moment you become righteous in His sight.

God IS the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him! And the greatest of His extravagant rewards is God Himself!

Are you diligently seeking Him?