Hosanna Restoration Church

When you consider that you cannot please God without faith; that makes faith a big deal! Since the Bible says that it is a fool who says there is no God, it is no wonder that we must believe there is a God. But of course, we all do believe there is a God, right! But do we believe that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him?

It seems that there is a wide range of opinions when it comes to God doing good things for those who seek Him. I think that most people hope He will, but in truth hesitate to expect much. The attitude is more one of throwing up a prayer and if God is in the right mood He might help, but if not that is okay because we have another plan and we don’t really want to put God out anyway. If we will just read this verse of scripture we will see that God does not want us to have that kind of attitude. He wants us to expect the good plans He has for us.

If we want to please Him, then we need to believe that He is who He says He is and that He does what He says He will do. Either He is God or He is not. Therefore, if we want to please Him we must come to Him with it settled in our hearts that He is God. Of course if a person is coming the first time, it is fine to say things like, “if you are real God, come into my heart.” But after that, we should be coming in faith because the Spirit in us desires to please God.

What are the two requirements again? We must believe that He is God. He has plenty of credentials to prove who He is. The first part of this chapter goes through some of the things that we believe by faith. Without faith of course we could never believe that God created the universe or that everything that ever has been made was made by Him. The kind of faith that God desires believes what God says. Now it is fine to ask God to explain how He does things, but I don’t really think we should call Him a liar. If there is problem with what God says or does, the problem is with us and not with Him.

Now as I said, the second part of this big deal is where it begins to stretch us at times. Not only do we need to believe He exists, but we must also believe that He exists with a deep desire to reward us for believing. Why do you suppose it is so hard for us to accept this idea when it was God’s idea in the first place? As you read on in the chapter, you see how so many did things by faith. Many of them died without seeing all the promises, but they were still looking forward to them. Verse 16 says that they were looking for a better place. Even with all they saw, they still expected something better because of what God had promised.

This is the kind of faith we must have as well. We should always be expecting something better. That does not mean we are not content, it just means that we have the kind of trust and faith in God that believes He always has something better. When we are down we expect to be up. When we are up, we expect Him to take us higher because He is God. So if we really believe that He exists, then we must also believe that He has good plans for us. If we don’t believe that, then we need to know Him better. Faith is a big deal! God gave us all enough faith to move mountains. Let’s use it!