Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God. [Romans 4.20-25]
I really had no intention of writing about Abraham today. I really thought at first that I would be continuing to write about the first part of today's reading from the One Year Chronological Bible. However, as I continued to read, I realized the passage above was my topic for today.
Faith is the only thing that pleases God. Particularly, God is pleased with our faith in His trustworthiness to make good on His promises.
This topic is a bit overwhelming as I consider all it implies. Regardless of all the talk and writing in the world, faith is the key to a relationship with God.
Abraham pleased God because he believed God would do what He promised. Like Abraham, we please God when we believe God will do what He promised. However, we have an additional facet to our faith in that we can believe that God did what He promised. But faith is the key. And, although we have this additional time-facet to our faith (not just what God will do, but also what God did), it is still faith, and faith is the only thing that pleases God.
In light of all the Kingdom-talk I have been engaged in over the last months, how does this relate? I am glad to say it relates beautifully!
Here's how: I don't think the New Testament was given to us simply to get us to believe Jesus' historical work. No, I believe, the New Testament was given to us as the documentation of what Jesus did (originally written for fact) so that we might operate in forward-looking faith about the Kingdom! You see, Jesus never intended for us to get stuck on focusing just on what He did! He had every intention that we would focus on what He did AND THEN DO LIKEWISE! That is where our faith shines.
When we 'do what Jesus did,' we focus on others and not ourselves. This action (and lifestyle) requires God-pleasing faith. When we abandon our own needs in order to "Seek first the Kingdom of God..." it is very much an act of God-pleasing faith. Unless we face utter devastation and loss (like Abraham did when he raised the knife over Isaac), we may not be seeking God's Kingdom first. I said "may" just to avoid the storm of ire that would have surely come had I been more emphatic (but we all know the truth).
God-pleasing faith is NOT just backward-looking faith at the work Jesus did. God-pleasing faith is taking the fact of Jesus' life and teaching in forward-looking faith that God will take care of us as we too abandon our own watch over ourselves in order to watch over others.
Wow, I didn't see that coming...
Father, You have amazed me today and challenged me to a faith far beyond what I expected.
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