Faith. Part 2
“Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
I assume that because you are reading this, you are therefore amongst those who desire to PLEASE GOD.
It is important to dwell on this verse in Hebrews. We are told that without FAITH we cannot please God. Therefore, if anyone has the desire to please God, he/she must cast everything else aside and focus on this word FAITH. Whatever faith is, it must become the centre of our attention, and be treated with the same drive as that of the physics student or the athlete.
We are about to do just that in this series, and as a result some surprises may meet us along the way.
Here then is the first LAW OF FAITH in the Bible. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17).
First of all we must cast aside the world’s use of the word FAITH in ways not conforming to Biblical teaching. Our study of FAITH must be limited to the “rule book” as rigorously as the physics student is limited to the LAWS OF NATURE.
If a man says, “I have faith that this chair will not let me down”, he has misappropriated the word FAITH. Instead he has exercised hope that man’s workmanship will not fail him.
If a woman says, “We must have faith that it will not rain at the Church Garden Party,” she should rather have said, “We must pray that in the Lord’s kindness it will not rain.”
If a mother says, “I have faith that my daughter will pass her examinations,” we would have to find out more about the mother, if she had TRUE FAITH, according to Romans 10:17, or whether she was merely employing a commonly used expression.
Next time we shall look more closely at Romans 10:17, and its insistence on us using our EARS.
