Living Life in Faith

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
Hebrews 11 (click the link)


FOCAL PASSAGE:
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, 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, NKJV)


REFLECTIONS:
Who’s assigning these devotional chapters to writers? Tres? Greg? God? I don’t know, but I needed to dig down deep a couple times for this chapter and I’ll confess I came up empty and falling short. How do you tease apart faith? How do you live out faith? 

Hebrews 11 starts out with a beautiful and often quoted verse, Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Then the writer explains this concept by interpreting traditional stories of Hebrew pillars of faith that we have in our Old Testament. Their acts of faith distinguished them. 

Let’s see if we can break this down. To me it goes like this: Do we believe God exists? Do we believe that if we seek God we can have a relationship with God? In relationship with God do we believe that God is our rewarder? And finally, do we trust God to pick the reward and the time frame when the reward will be fulfilled. Belief is key and the start, but acting on these beliefs is what set apart these pillars of faith. 

So how do these pillars of faith measure up against Hebrews 11:6? 

I love the messiness of the Bible. It doesn’t really clean everything up and make it nice and neat. Abraham is a classic example: father of the Hebrew faith; promised a son that would be the start of a great nation at a very old age; and promised a land where that nation would prosper. But was it all smooth sailing with our pillar of faith always waiting and trusting with perfect faith. Abraham and Sarah definitely struggled and the Bible doesn’t seem to clean any of it up. You can read this messy story in Genesis chapters 11 through 25. But what I think was going on in all the messiness was a growing relationship with God through Abraham’s willingness to act out the faith that he received from God. In the end, God did reward Abraham’s faithfulness and honored all the promises He made to Abraham, some waiting to be fulfilled after Abraham’s death. 

So, how do we measure up against Hebrews 11:6? 

Some time back I read a book by Craig Groeschel called The Christian Atheist: Believing in God but Living As If He Doesn’t Exist. In this book Groeschel explains that the concept of his book came to him when he realized that as a pastor of a large growing church he only intellectually believed in God, but actually lived out his life as an atheist. About 6 years ago I found myself in a similar life position and made a conscious decision to turn away from sleep walking through life and turn towards a life focused and pointed at a growing relationship with a real and living God, things began to change for me. The Bible came alive; I treasured the sweetness of time spent in worship and a good message; and I began to hear God whisper in my ears. 

One time Gayle, Erin and I were all home sick and at that same time a squirrel had crawled up and died in the walls of our home. We were miserable stuck in our home sick with a stench that filled the air. I felt that we were under attack. Earlier that week I had heard a message on the radio that when we feel under attach we should use the 4-D method: Declare Jesus the Lord; call upon the Lord for the Demolition of the spirit; be Devoted to prayer; and be Determined. It is strange, but it took me all day to muster up the courage to apply this to my own situation, but I did it. The three of us huddled in prayer and I declared that Jesus was the Lord of our home and I asked Jesus to come and help us in our situation. Now in hind sight, I understand the reason it took me all day to muster up the courage. I truly believed I was praying to the real God and not just saying some nice things. Immediately after the prayer we weren’t well and the air didn’t smell sweet, but that night I had a vision or maybe it was a dream. I’m not sure. In the vision, I sat up in bed and saw an angel standing over our bed protecting us. Wow! What had happened? I had acted out my faith that God had given me and God had responded.

So now everything goes great for me and I never fail God in our relationship. Riiiiight... I wish I could say this was the case, but truth is I fail God daily. I’m selfish, weak in spirit and in action. I receive God’s sweat answer to prayer and then catch myself worried, doubting, and paranoid that life is just about to go really bad. I routinely pick my reward ask God for my reward and pout that my reward isn’t fulfilled. In all this faith failure that I live out, I pray that God will find me faithful to Him and that I will continue to point my life in His direction and receive His sweet reward of relationship. And isn’t that the greatest reward, a relationship with God, creator of the universe, with Jesus, His son that gave His life for us, and with the Holy Spirit that gives us hope. 


POINT OF ACTION:
Make a conscious decision to think through what you believe at your core. If you can believe that there is a God know that He wants to have a relationship with you that grows and is tangible. Then trust that in this relationship God is your rewarder and will not let you down. Now in this relationship act out in love what God calls you to do. Oh yeah, don’t beat yourself up when you feel you have failed God. He’s a big guy and he’s already taken care of it. He sent His son to die for our sins. 


PRAYER:
God draw near to us. Grow our faith when we can’t. Give us the strength and faith to act out Your call on our lives. Send us into action for You. Forgive us when we fall short. 


WHO AM I?
My name is David Norris and I love to go mountain bike riding. Somehow being alone in the woods dodging rocks, roots, and branches clears my head of all the noise of the world and frees me to draw near to God. I’ve had many wonderful mystical experiences in the woods on my bike. I also love to spend time with the 3 women in my life: my wife Gayle, my shipping magnate Meagan, and rock star Erin. God has blessed me with a very sweet life.