Monday 15 Oct 2012

Monday Reading: Hebrews 11:4-7

Key Verse: Hebrews 11:6
6  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.

Devotion:
Have you ever thought about why you followed your parents instructions, well that is assuming that you actually did follow some of their instructions! The best explanation that you could come up with is that you respected their judgement in the matter or that you had confidence in what they were telling you was in your best interest. Or another simple way of putting it would be that you had faith in their judgement or in them.

Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes from hearing and that comes from reading God’s Word. Just as our parents would spend time to tell us about the things we should be doing and then showing us  or leading by example, we too have to listen to God and then to follow His example. That example is recorded for our reading in our bibles where we have time to read and meditate on those examples of many people that have lived before us and have followed God’s ways and tried to live for Him.

Without that knowledge in the beginning we would have no idea how we could please God and we would have no real goal to aim for either. But with God’s Word we do have that hope and as long as we have faith that what God has said is all true, then our faith will be realised instead of just being the belief in something that may happen! As it says in verse 1, faith is the substance of things hoped for – our faith is not a blind hope but the realisation of what we hope for.

Without that faith, that belief in God’s truth, we do not have that realisation of that truth so we have no faith and no hope. And if we do not have that faith or belief in God’s ways then how will we ever be able to please Him? All we will end up doing is aiming to do what we think is best for our own selves because we need to please someone. When we place our faith and trust in Christ then we do find it can be quite easy to please Him because we will want to listen to Him. The more that we do seek His will the more willing we will be to follow those ways that He has given us in His Word. And just like any proud parent like to lift up, praise and reward children that behave, God will lift us up and reward us as appropriate too.

Points to Ponder:
Do you actively Seek God?

Or do you just expect the rewards for nothing?