Faith and Prayer
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. (Hebrews 11:6)
God rewards faith. Christianity started with the faith of Abraham. Faith means that we do not see to believe. So, praying is an act of faith. When we pray, we are acknowledging that God exists and listens even though we do not see Him. God rewards our faith by answering our prayers.
I have noticed that when I first came to Christ, He answered my prayers pretty quickly. It was as if I was in “obedience school” and He wanted to reward my good behavior of including Him. As I grew in my faith, I next noticed that God answered some prayers quickly but other prayers, He did not answer at all. He was then training me to learn how to pray and ask for certain things differently. When I studied the Word to see God’s heart on the matter or asked God to clarify my motives of why I was asking, He would answer those prayers as well as what I asked.
Now, after having walked with the Lord for many years, my prayer life has changed again. I have more of a conversational prayer life than an “ask and believe and receive” prayer life. Now, I talk with the Lord about my requests. I ask Him to reveal His heart to me about the matter and I wait to see if there is any change in my heart as I also search the Scriptures to hear His heart. The requests themselves have now become smaller in comparison to the relationship of talking and listening and learning from Him. There is no request or unanswered prayer that becomes more important than my ongoing relationship with Him. So my faith is rewarded in a completely different way than answered prayer; my faith is rewarded by enjoying His presence in the process.
God is good. Learn to seek Him in faith. It starts with prayer requests and continues until you are praying without ceasing. You will not be disappointed. How could we ever be more satisfied than with the very presence of God Himself?
As I take a moment and reflect on the past weeks devotions I realize prayer has been the main focus. It’s important that we realize how vital prayer is in our relationship with God. It’s not something that should be taken lightly. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. There is so much power in prayer.
Have a beautiful day in The Lord!
Today’s Reading is Hebrews 11:1
Hebrews 11 Faith
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. (Hebrews 11:6)
Hebrews 11 is a great example of the pillars of our faith. It is filled with the stories of faithful men and women who were faithful to God’s leading, many times not even living to see their works bear fruit (Hebrews 11:13).
We can read these verses and be amazed at the faith of these people and maybe even dream of how we would respond to God in similar situations. However, God has called us today to have faith just as those in Hebrews 11. Their faith wasn’t limited to one particular instance or event, but it was woven through everything they did. For “without faith it is impossible to please” God.
Everything we do in life should be directly linked to our faith in the Faithful One. James even wrote of this as it pertained to prayer. He said that if we don’t pray with the faith that God will answer our prayers then we are unstable in all of our ways (James 1:6-8).
Do you go to church just because it is what Christians do?
Or, do you go to church expecting in faith that God will move in a mighty way?
Our Christian disciplines can easily become routine and no longer be a part of our faith in God as they once were. Don’t let reading your Bible, praying, going to church be another thing to check off your list of Christian things to do. Do them with faith, knowing that a loving and powerful God will move in and through you as you do these.
What areas of your life do you need to start doing in faith?
When I read this I was amazed by so many different examples in Hebrews 11, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. May I live each day by faith, even if to some it’s crazy faith, by faith, I want to live my life by faith and watch what God will do, by faith. So simple and yet so powerful.
Have a wonderful day in The Lord!
Today’s Reading is Hebrews 11
By Faith
The Hebrews 11 definition of faith is pretty straight forward. The Christian faith means confidently hope in the promises of God. Not pretend to “hope” but actually pessimistically doubt, we are to confidently hope. There ought to be a certain bounce in our step because our confidence in God’s promises is so great. We know He will fulfill His commitments to us.
Our confidence in His promises come from our assurance in what we do not see. This is such a hard thing because we humans don’t see a whole lot. For starters, we don’t even get to see God Himself. We are taking it on faith that He even exists. It’s not a baseless faith, but it is faith without sight. And we also don’t get to see how God is working for us behind the scenes and out of our sight. This blindness can often be a harder leap of faith then the leap in believing in God at all. Not knowing how God is going to work all things together for our good and yet remaining confident in our hope in Him? That’s not an easy ask. But it’s not one the Lord asks of us ignorantly either. While God doesn’t know what ignorance is like, He knows us. He created us and He perfectly comprehends how we function and how challenging it is for us to walk faithfully when we cannot see what the full picture of what is happening or how it will end.
The mystery of faith and the assurance about what we don’t see has been compared to quilt-making. On the underside of the quilt, all you can see is the knots, the apparently hapless crisscrossing of different threads and colors. It looks like a disaster, a mess. But on the right side of the quilt, we see a beautifully embroidered pattern, one that could only be wrought by a master seamstress. We live on the underside of the quilt. But we like to think that we are living on the right side of the quilt, so when things go wrong, we panic and think that the design of our lives has gone terribly wrong and that everything is ruined. But there is a master Designer knitting and knotting us into a beautiful work that only He can see. We have to trust that the knots and messes of our lives are being worked out into beauty as our God has promised. We are to have assurance that He sees what we do not and confident hope in the promises He has made to us.
When I read this it blessed me and I wanted to share it with someone today. I trust there is someone who needed this today. What a mighty God we serve.
Have a wonderful day in The Lord!
Today’s Reading is Hebrews 11