PLEASING FAITH

PLEASING FAITH

Heb. 11:6 So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.  NLT

      There are many, many people today who try to please God without faith in Christ.  They are willing to confess belief in God, but not in Christ as the way to God.  They strive to be good people and convince themselves that it is enough in order to be accepted by God.  Some will profess to believe in Jesus but their belief in Him is nothing more than lip service.  They do not entrust themselves to Him for salvation and strive to make it to heaven on their own.

      It is impossible to please God apart from a living faith in Christ because Jesus is the only one who truly pleases God.  Jesus perfectly obeyed God and offered himself up as the sacrifice for our sins.  Jesus alone is the glory of God personified.  There is no way to please God outside of the righteousness and holiness of Christ which He bestows on those who trust Him to be their Savior.

     It is not enough to believe there is God; we must believe in God’s way to eternal life.  Anyone can make it to heaven if they believe in their heart that God has made himself known to man through the life of Jesus and trusts in Him to be his Savior.  Jesus rewards all who come to Him for the forgiveness of their sins with eternal life.  There is no other way that God is going to be pleased with you and accept you as His child.  

      Not only must we have saving faith, we must have living faith.  Saving faith translates into living faith for those who have sincere hearts.  We live lives that are consistent with our salvation.  We allow the Lord to continuously change us and teach us new things.  We grow into holiness of life as we live out our faith.  If you are not growing, you are not going to heaven when you die.  Life begets life.  If you are alive in Christ, you will produce evidence of it in your life.  Faith without works is dead.  There is no life in those who do not show evidence of it in their lives.

       Words spoken without actions to back them up are meaningless.  What we say does not please God unless it is backed up by godly living, which requires much faith to accomplish.  Anyone can claim to be a follower of Christ, very few actually follow Him. 

      It takes no faith to claim to be a Christian, but it takes great faith to actually live like one.  Those who actually live by faith are those who please God and will see Him someday face-to-face.