By Faith

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” – Hebrews 11:1

We’ve all heard of and know the “Faith Chapter” or “Hall of Faith,” however you choose to refer to it. But I want to take a minute and ask you: “You’ve heard of it, but do you know it? You know it, but do you understand it?” I can’t remember how many times I’ve heard and read this chapter. For encouragement, for whatever, it’s a wonderful passage of scripture. But this morning, as I was doing my devotion (I’m once again going through Hebrews), I began reading determined not to see the same ‘ole same ‘ole. Encouraging whether it’s your first time to read it or your thousandth, I didn’t want to skim it simply because I could practically quote it. I went in looking for something new. Looking for a lesson – something to learn and grow from. Looking for something I hadn’t seen yet. And here is what I saw:
Verse six is probably just as well known a verse as verse one: “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for everyone who would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Ok. That’s simple enough. “Without faith it is impossible to please him…” Well unless you have faith, you won’t believe and have no reason to please, so, of course… and it continues into the next part of the verse: “…for everyone who would draw near to God must believe that he exists…” how do you get closer to something you don’t believe exists? Pause. Ok. That’s easy. That’s understandable. As humans, I think we have that part down pat. You believe or you don’t and based on whether or not you believe, you will do different things with your life. You will try to please God or you won’t care. As Christians, we’re covered to this point. Obviously, we believe and, hopefully, that belief would inspire a desire to please the one we believe in. But unfortunately, I think that this is where a lot of us stop. “Ok. There’s a God. I believe in him and I’m going to do my best to please him with my life. But if it’s inconvenient, then, well we’ll see – I’ll just do my best. I mean, he can’t ask for more, right?” And we live our lives. Our “best” consists of: “Thank you for this food and protect my family” and “Shoot! I forgot to read my Bible today! Oh well, I’ll read Psalm 23 and he’ll be happy I read his word, then I can go to bed!” and we never actually live for him. Or maybe – maybe we get the prayer and Bible reading thing down. “Oh ya! I pray first thing after waking up and even through the whole day and don’t forget that hour long devotion/journal session I had this morning! Yep! God got a good deal on me!” But the truth is that even though we’re talking to him, we’re not listening to him. Our Bible reading is just that – reading – and we’re not actually working to apply anything that we might have seen. We’re not actually reading with the intention of finding a lesson, we’re just writing our own little commentary about the Bible and occasionally think, “Huh, that’s really cool,” but forget about it as soon as the journal closes. Or maybe we’ve allowed God to infiltrate our life but we don’t exactly understand what that means. Honestly – I’ve been in all three of those stages. Currently, I’m in the last. Desiring for God to consume my life, but hesitant with the question of “How much do I let him have?” See, the Bible makes it very clear that God’s ways are not our ways. And I can tell you right now that some of the most obvious times that I’ve seen God work in and through me have been when I was doing something so off the wall that I myself would have never contemplated going there. I’m reminded of Paul saying “If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.” in 2 Corinthians 5:13. See Hebrews 11:6 goes beyond pleasing God and believing in him. It continues: “AND that he rewards those who seek him.” Now stop for a moment. Do you actually believe that God rewards you? I think that a lot of us think “after all I’ve done and he’s already done, I don’t deserve to be rewarded.” And we would be right. But I’m not talking about us. I’m talking about him. See it’s not our call what he does and doesn’t give us. We can certainly ask for certain gifts and we can certainly refuse to use the gifts he gives us, but I want to take this beyond even that.
“Do you believe God has the power to reward you?” Really. Because according to this verse, you must not only believe that he exists, but you must believe that he rewards. And if you believe that he rewards, then why aren’t you looking for them? Why are you content to sit and passively accept what has been given you as enough rather than getting up and seeking out the rewards he has promised? And don’t tell me it’s because you’re humble. That’s manure. God is saying right here, in this itty bitty verse, a key that I think a lot of us, myself included, have missed. Christianity isn’t just about believing in God and living your life so that you’re not in too much trouble with him when you die. Christianity is about believing in a POWERFUL God who not only exists, but permeates every part of our being with himself and overflows us with rewards. I’ve heard so many people ask “Why does God let so and so happen?” Maybe it’s because we refuse to believe he’s powerful enough to use us, so we refuse him access. God REWARDS those who seek him. Faith isn’t just believing in an existence, guys. It’s not even living a different life based on the belief in that existence. It’s living your life based on the belief of a powerful and rewarding existence. So many times we go to an extreme with the people of the Bible. They were “oh so holy” or “no different than us.” How about a happy medium? They were just like us in that they too were human, but they were “oh so holy” in that they didn’t allow their humanity to cripple them. Instead, by faith, they allowed a powerful existence to completely absorb their lives and bring a reward none of them could begin to imagine. Our reward isn’t just heaven. Our reward is here and now if we let it be; if we too, live by faith and allow God to reward us. Fully believing that he not only can – but will. Our reward is living a life of faith that has meaning and influence and even so much more. The heroes of the Bible were people; people who lived by faith and believed in a God powerful enough to reward them. They lived in expectancy of reward and that, dear friends, is what made then exceptional. If we are to please God, we can’t stop at believing he exists. I can believe Santa exists. What is the point in believing in God if we don’t also believe that he is powerful and rewarding? You guys, we have GOT to get this or we cripple ourselves! The phrase “by faith” is used 18 times in the span of 29 verses. I think God thinks it’s important. Please don’t hear me condemning. This is something I’m working on too. But I truly believe that we have got to stop listening to the world and dumbing our God down to its standards. We have got to leave the world behind and live in faith, giving the God we claim room to be powerful – room to be God. I want to close with Hebrews 11: 15-16 – “If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I beg you, let us live in the knowledge that the God we claim is powerful beyond our imagination and that in that power, he bestows rewards on us who will follow him. Let us live by faith.