You get a prize!

We’ll end this series on faith with this verse, Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith knowing that he is real and that he rewards the faith of those who give all their passion and strength into seeking him.”

There are three important aspects of our verse today. The first is that it is impossible to please God without faith. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith for us as follows, “Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It [faith] is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen”. Faith is now, it is in our present moment and the word evidence supports what we have been discussing about how faith needs a corresponding action. How faith without works is dead. In order to please God, we must maintain our faith in Him and ensure that there remains evidence of our faith by our works.

The second thing our verse tells us is that we must come to God in faith knowing that He is real. It is important that we believe beyond the shadow of a doubt that God is real. How do we do that? We enter into a relationship with Him, the more we seek God and chase after Him the more of Himself He will reveal to us and the more convinced we become of His existence as a reality. God is real. Jesus’ death on the cross is not just a bible story, it is real. Your sins were paid for by the blood that Jesus shed on the cross, that is real. It is all real. Our faith must come to a point where the reality of who God is and His existence are no longer in question. Jesus is real and He is alive. We serve a living God who is not a far way of but who has made His home in our hearts.

The third important thing we need to grasp from our verse is that God is a rewarder. We are told that He “rewards the faith of those who give all their passion and strength into seeking him”. We can read that and nod in agreement but its another thing when we allow ourselves to fully believe it. However, we are required to come to God in faith knowing that He is real and He rewards the faith of those who give all their passion and strength into seeking him. I’m hoping by repeating it, it will sink into your heart.

God is looking for ways to bless us. If we so much as obey His word, He has blessings lined up. If we seek Him with all our passion and strength, He lines up rewards for us. He is not stingy. He is generous and He knows the difficulty and opposition we face in following Him. So, what does He do? He introduces a reward system. How awesome is He? It is impossible to please Him without faith but when we do have faith He is not only pleased, He rewards us for it.  But what’s even better is that He gives us the faith to begin with (Romans 12:3). So, He has given us the faith, He just wants us to use it. When we do, rewards are directed our way.

So if you step in faith in any of the areas we have been talking about or in any area at all, be sure to know that rewards are coming your way. I hear God saying to all the faithful people insert Oprah’s voice, “You get a prize! You get a prize! You get a prize! Everybody gets a prize!” Get ready to receive it!

Love and blessings

Melissa Tsingano.