Making Faith Negative
Hebrews 11:6 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.
Imagine it’s 75 and sunny out. You get to spend 4 hours outside with a few friends. You enjoy the fresh air, see some wildlife, and enjoy some spectacular views of God’s creation. Imagine it’s 75 and sunny out. You’re hitting a little white ball around. Trying to get it into a hole. One shot you feel like a professional and the next shot you feel like you’ve never played before. You can be high-fiving from a good shot and want to break a club because a bad shot. All in the same hole. Both of the above describe golf. I’d guess most would be all for playing if I described it to them the first way. A lot less of you would be interested if I described it to you as in the second example. It’s all in how we present it. The first part of our text verse tells us it’s impossible to please God without faith. We are to put our complete trust and confidence in the Lord. However, how do we represent that to those around us? Especially those that are lost. Do we exude that confidence or do we make it sound more like a last resort? What if you get bad news? A friend may make the comment that they just couldn’t imagine how they’d handle such news. You can respond by telling them that it’s all in God’s hands and you’re going to trust Him. However, I’ve also heard people say this: “welllll I’m just going to put faith in God and trust that He knows what He’s doing.” That statement doesn’t exactly exude true faith in God. I’ve heard many people answer in this way. They treat faith almost as a last resort. “We’ve tried everything else so we’re just going to trust God.” That’s the way it can come across. Our pastor has shared before about when he found out that he had cancer. We know he made the statement that it didn’t catch God by surprise and everything will be ok. That’s a lot different than: “ I’ll just have to trust God.” Our words and tone can go a long way in how we represent our faith to others. While those around us that are saved may understand what we “mean”. Those that are in the world won’t see it that way. It would be easy for them to ask themselves why should they trust in a God that you seem to only have faith in as a last resort? A faith that you make it sound like a burden or difficult task to have to trust in Christ. How do you represent your faith?
God bless you today! Bro. Josh Richardson
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