Faith (Well, something about it!)

As I was reading my Bible last night I noticed something that leaped out at me, the way you probably know.

I was reading Hebrews 11, the chapter about the "Heroes of Faith!" I like locating those verses that you hear a lot, verse 1 starts, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

But verse 6 was what struck me, another famously used verse, "And without faith it is impossible to please Him," But what struck me was the bit that comes after in the same verse, "for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."

A few years ago I remember wrestling with this, not this verse but this concept. I remember meeting a sweet little old lady who felt something was missing in her faith. I could see what was missing but could not get it across to her. We kept stumbling over the first bit. If I ever said she wasn't putting her faith in God, she would say, "But I believe He is there, I get down on my knees every morning and pray!"

Just like the verse in James I used a while back that put it so simply that Christians are about purity and charity, here it is put so simply. There is another verse in James that basically says, "So what if you believe God exists!" In James 2:19, "You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder."

What the writer of Hebrews adds for us is that we not only must believe that God is, but also that He rewards those who seek Him. It seems nonsense to say that those who come to God must believe that He is! Why or how would you come to Him if you didn't believe that He is?! There may be nominal Christians but we wouldn't consider they "Come to God!" We could consider this is a redundant expression which only emphasises the second condition; "And that He rewards those who seek Him!"

Of course, now we get into the "this life - next life" argument. When do we get a reward. The point of Hebrews 11, not at all theological in depth, is that God rewarded these people for their faith in this life. This isn't Pauline theological argument, this is:

"You know those guys we were told about? God blessed them right?"
"Well, yeah"
"Well, that's not because they were anything special, that's because God blesses those who seek Him!"
"What even me?"
"It's got nothing to do with you, who you are, what you've done, what kind of person you are, the point is, if you have faith, and faith is, believing God is and believing He rewards those who seek Him, then He will reward you too!"
"Ooh, thank you very much!"

It was one of those mind blowing moments for me again last night. Another verse that puts it so simply. Not only does God reward those who seek Him, but He is a God of love too! He loves you and wants to bless you.

Now, I know there is a Word - Faith movement and they have made a real pigs ear out of this lot, but that shouldn't mean that we ignore what the Bible says. There are plenty of verses that talk about how God wants to bless us, make everything work to our good, has plans to prosper us, to give us hope and a future and so on. But if we don't believe that, as Hebrews 11:6 says, then we are not coming to Him in (Biblical) faith.

OK, so a bit more on faith. The way I see it, everyone has faith. Faith is something humans have a capacity for. But faith is like the linkage on a train carriage. You can join that linkage to something else, but if it isn't joined to the engine that is going somewhere then it wont achieve anything. How do we know that our linkage is properly secured to the engine that is going somewhere? By believing He is and that he is the rewarder of those who seek Him!"

I find that a real blessing. Maybe it is too much of a blessing for some. Not only does God want to love us, but He also wants to bless us.

It occurred to me that I haven't been seeking Him, I have been seeking what I should do. In God's silence I have looked for what I should do to make up for any lack. Every now and then I drift off and thankfully He brings me back. But the last part of this isn't that He just blesses us, "but those who seek Him." We seek Him believing He blesses us and He Blesses us! Obviously not with our worldly desires, but with the things that will actually bless us.

If my son asks for a car at 17 and I think he is a reckless idiot then it wont be a blessing to give him a car. However, if he is mature and sensible then it will be a blessing. So don't write anything off of the list of possible blessing, the only criteria I would think would be whether it is a blessing. But even then, we can be blessed with things that enable us to learn!

I have seen that one of the biggest obsticles for some people is that they just can't accept that God is nice!