By Faith

What does it take to please God? Is He waiting for us to do some benevolent deeds, to meet some pressing need, to “up our game” on church attendance? Does He want us to promise to read our Bibles or attend another Bible study or give more money? Does God sit in Heaven impatiently waiting to be pleased by our obedience to morality or to treat people more nicely or to commit to a mission trip?

Just what is it that God is waiting for us to do so He can say to us, “well done good and faithful servant?” The solution to our quest is right under our collective noses. It is planted in stories and sentences in Old and New Testaments, in letters and Gospel accounts and even has a full chapter in the Bible devoted to it.

The answer? God. Wants. Faith.

“Now wait,” you may protest. “FAITH? All God wants, amid all the good things we could be involved in, God just wants faith?” Well, I didn’t make the answer up. I didn’t set the standard. I’m simply asking myself and you, if you are interested in such things. Jesus brought the answer to the floor in a passage where He asks and answers the question for us.

“When the Son of Man returns (that’s Jesus) will He find FAITH on the earth?” In all the ruins left behind; when the game tapes of our lives are replayed for evaluation Jesus is sorting through the rubble looking for one shining treasure. Our faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please God,” the inspired writer of Hebrews says.

It is by that faith that salvation becomes a reality to us. It is by that faith that our righteousness is determined. Not by works that we can do. Those are all… ALL… polluted by our self-serving and fleshly need to boast. We live by faith. “We walk by faith and not by sight.” Can you think of other verses that reinforce that truth? I’m confident you can.

So what does it take to please our Father in Heaven… to make Him rejoice in us and be pleased with our lives? That answer is now a given.

He wants a people of faith.

 

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