"Without Faith"

Recently, I was listening to a sermon, and the preacher quoted a portion of this scripture...and as I heard it, the Lord began to reveal something new to me about it that I had not formally known about it. With these words, it has always been my assumption that this scripture had a negative connotation associated with it, simply because I always felt either condemned or like there was much more work for me to do when I was reminded of it. Here is the scripture:

Hbr 11:6 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.

It's the "without faith it is impossible to please Him," because I always felt as though perhaps I wasn't living up to my end of the deal where this scripture was concerned. I don't believe that I am alone in this assumption either, there are many other people out there that feel like it is up to them to maintain the correct amount of faith in order for God to be pleased or work on our behalf. And we think that if we are failing, it is because we don't have ENOUGH faith, or the right kind of faith.

The fact is, as mere human beings, there is NOTHING within ourselves that will actually EVER measure up to God's level of expectation. What God actually demands is absolute perfection on our behalf...........Does anyone else feel inadequate in this area? Have any of us ever lived and completely sinless life, full of nothing but perfect faith? Is there any good, the Bible says, "There is none righteous, no not one," (Rom 3:10). Is it so hard for us to believe that God demands perfection from us, knowing that we can't actually BE perfect all the time? Isn't that cruel of God? I thought He was Just?

The fact is that the problem has never lied in Him, but rather in humanity. And the truth is, God's not cruel, He is Just. He lovingly knew that there was no way that we would ever be able to live up to His level of expectation in our fallen state. Had Adam and Eve never fallen from perfection in the Garden and sinned, we wouldn't have the problems that we have now. Unfortunately we automatically inherited those curses without ever asking for them. But.....there is hope--Stay with me Beloved!

The only way that we can NOT have "faith," is to NOT have Christ. So if you are someone that has received Christ into your heart, you're in the clear. What that means, is that WE may not have had "enough faith" or the "correct object of faith," but when we accepted Christ, we accepted ALL that we NEED! So if what we need is faith to please God and we have Christ in our hearts, then we have what it takes to please God!!! So our ability to please God is not based upon ourselves or anything that we can do, but rather upon whether or not we have the One that God DOES accept!

Now, if we look at the last half of that verse, we can see something else that speaks about our daily journey with Christ. We'll quote it again, "...for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." What this means is that in order to receive Christ into our lives, we had to "believe" that He was what we needed. If Christ is from God, and He is what we need, then if we can continually just KNOW that we are pleasing to God because we have Christ in our hearts, then God rewards us. He rewards us not by what we do, what we have done, or what we will someday in the future do, but because of what Jesus Christ has done at the Cross for us.

When Jesus Christ died upon that Cross, He did more than just lay down His life. He traded our life, for His. That means that if we have accepted Christ into our heart, than everything that we need is now WITHIN us!

This is where we don't discover the champion in us, but we discover the Champion that we are now that we are IN CHRIST!

***if you haven't received Jesus into your heart, we invite you to ask Him in today. There is no way to please God without Him, but WITH Christ, there are no limits to the good things that can happen in our lives. Won't you receive Him today and let God allow you to feel His Love for you?!***