As significant faith is in the life of a believer in Christ, its usefulness and significance are based on the trustworthiness of its source. In fact, anybody has the capability of exercising faith in a wide host of things. Surprisingly, faith is something that’s being exercised daily either consciously or unconsciously by many individuals whether they believe in the true God or not. For instance, when using a tool to get things done, you have to at least have a certain level of faith in that tool in the sense of its ability to execute successfully the desired task as intended. What about those who are parachuting out of the sky? That’s real faith in action because they have to retain a firm belief that the parachute will be able to sustain them out of the sky until making a safe landing, even though there’s some possibility that it might fail.
Having said that, it turns out that faith all by itself is not what really matter, it’s where you choose to place your faith in. In fact, you won’t be held or sustained by the simple act of faith alone. Instead, it’s completely dependent on the capability and reliability of where you’re placing your faith in to meet your expectations.
However, the big problem lies with many people who’re placing their faith in worldly things that are fallible; in other words, that have no eternal significance to such an incredible extent they wouldn’t even do so in like manner into God who is infallible, all-powerful, and all-sufficient. That’s nothing more than self-deception as well as being shortsighted. What you get out of that is a type of unreliable and fragile faith that’s a pure expression of the very elements their faith is placed in.
Faith in God is Truly What Matter.
As mentioned above, faith plays such a vital role in everything we’re doing as humans whether we realize it or not. Conversely, if we don’t believe that something can at least produce some desirable results, it’s very likely that we won’t waste our time and precious resources in such thing. This type of faith is exercised in what people can see, feel, taste, and touch.
To put it differently, this type of faith is known as natural faith, which is quite shallow and fragile. Nevertheless, when it comes down to God, things have changed dramatically because faith has to be exercised in such a fashion contrary to the natural one just mentioned earlier. The Christian life is laid wholly upon having faith in God known as supernatural faith. Faith is the key foundation by which God operates in people’s lives.
If you cannot trust God, He just cannot be whom He claims to be within His Word. Besides, if you cannot trust God, that’s tantamount to rejecting Him and His promises. Thereby that’s dishonoring to Him. Think about that for a while, faith is the very means by which we express our gratitude and our concern for God in response to His grace bestowed upon us through Christ.
On the other hand, unbelief which is the exact opposite of faith is a major stumbling block capable of keeping God’s away or from intervening in people’s lives indefinitely. In order to explore that issue in depth, it’s worthwhile that we take a thorough look at the meaning of faith based on the account of Hebrews chapter 11.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1).
From that definition, we can clearly see that faith rests upon two great pillars. The first one is confidence in what we hope for, which implies the future. And the second one is assurance about what we do not see, which relates to the present. Keep in mind, faith in general pertains to the past in the context that God’s provision has already been made available through grace in Christ (Mark 11:24).
The first aspect has to do with hope, which is intended to motivate us to keep pressing on towards our utmost objective obediently, patiently, and persistently. In this case, hope is received at the moment we place our faith in Christ, but the most important and most glorious aspect of it will take place when get to see Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as who He really is.
Then, the second aspect has to do with things that are present but invisible. As mentioned earlier about folks exercising faith in worldly things, these people’s conceptions and viewpoints regarding the issues of life are attached directly to the things they believe in as well as this natural world they’re living in. This type of mindset is a very superficial one. In most cases, they can’t even grasp the fact that the supernatural realm in which God resides is way more real than the natural one along with the fact that what they are relying on have no eternal significance.
Assurance about what we don’t see with the naked eyes has to do with God active role and constant willingness to materialize the very things that were accomplished through His only begotten Son Christ Jesus into people’s lives. As Christians, the focus should never be on the challenges we’re seeing with our natural eyes, it should be about what God is capable of doing concerning them (Matthew 19:26, Numbers 11:23). The issues of life have to be the very things that compel us to depend up on God more and more.
How Does Faith Actually Please God?
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).
Faith pleases God in the context of recognizing and embracing Him as “WHO He IS”. God is pleased and glorified when He’s acknowledged as the only One who has the satisfying answer to our problems. He’s pleased when He’s acknowledged as the only One who can meet all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). God is pleased when we hand over everything into His hands by stopping to rely on our human effort. He’s pleased when we adopt an attitude of praising and worshiping Him in the midst of trials because that’s the greatest expression of our faith.
God is pleased when we acknowledge our inabilities, shortcomings, and weaknesses by humbling ourselves to Him through faith. God is pleased whenever we rise above our own human thinking, reasoning, viewpoint, and unbelief by trusting Him alone. Be warned that these things mentioned here can potentially become serious impediments to our faith. Having faith in God simply means looking away from anything that can serve us as a hindrance. Lastly, God is glorified when we stand on the promises found in His Word as the only things worthy of our complete trust and reliance.
Here’s a handful of Scripture verses that you can rely and meditate on in order to strengthen your faith. God’s power abides within His Word. The Word is so meaningful to God, He has elevated it even above His own name (Psalm 138:2). Moreover, we’re to to trust Him on the basis of His Word.
God is the One who always stands behind His Word in order to fulfill it (Jeremiah 1:12). He’s not human, that He should lie, not a human being, that He should change His mind (Numbers 23:19). His Word will never return void without fulfilling what He desires and achieve the purpose for which He sent it (Isaiah 55:11). Conversely, when people cannot trust God for whatever reason it might be, it’s just a complete disregard to whom God is as well as His immutable attributes.
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