Hebrews 11:6

Hebrews 11:6

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

From this verse, as well as many others, the importance of faith in God is very clear. No amount of “good works” will ever compensate for lack of faith! You can do many good things, even godly things, but if you have no faith in God, they are useless and of no value to Him. God, as always, cares about our heart. He cares about our motive for doing good. This entire chapter in Hebrews is about those “heroes of faith” from the Old Testament, they had complete faith in God and obeyed Him even when it made no human sense to them. And isn’t that what having faith in someone really is?

The very first verse in Hebrews 11 states this… “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
While this may not be a “formal” definition of faith according to this world, it certainly is God’s definition of it. When we have faith in God, we believe Him, and if we believe Him we obey Him, and when we obey Him, we PLEASE Him. It is a simple progression isn’t it?

To not have faith in God is to not believe Him, and to not believe Him is to call Him a liar (1John 5:10). Does anyone really want to be in the position of calling Almighty God a liar? I think NOT! But you see when we doubt God because our trials and problems in life aren’t being resolved as quickly as we would like, we are in essence not believing Him at His Word, because in His Word He says…
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

This mind-set of faith in God is what gave the saints in the Old Testament strength to endure harrowing trials in life, some even to the point of death, yet keep their faith in Him intact. We in the New Testament era have the indwelling Holy Spirit to enable us to stay strong in our faith in God and to do those things in life that please Him. What a glorious position we are in before God because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our sins.

When we place our faith in Jesus Christ and His bloodshed for the forgiveness of our sins, we are changed from the status of sinner to saint, and from outcast to child of God! Our sins are remembered no more by God (Hebrews 8:12), as He now views us through the precious atoning blood of His one and only Son, we are cleansed and holy before Him.

Thank You Jesus for Your redeeming bloodshed for me, and for making me a child of God. I love You so my Savior, and my Prince of Peace, I give You all praise this day, Amen!