This Truth Will Energize Your Faith
This ONE Insight Can Improve Your Relationship with God
You cannot read the Bible, especially the New Testament, without seeing the importance God places on faith.
Just about everything in God’s kingdom (which is the way He designed us to live) involves some aspect of faith.
Faith in Jesus saves us (Ephesians 2:8–9)
We receive answers to our prayers when we pray in faith. (Mark 11:24)
We overcome the challenges of the world by faith. (1 John 5:4)
God even built us to live our entire lives by faith in Him. (Romans 1:17)
We find perhaps the most important thing about faith, for those who are followers of Jesus, in Hebrews 11:6 NASB:.
“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
All Jesus’ followers strongly believe in the first part of faith that pleases God:
We believe He exists.
It’s the second part that we sometimes struggle with:
Believing He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
Some of us struggle with this because we know selfishness is not a kingdom of God virtue. We do not want to be one of those who constantly pray that we would be rich and famous and focus most of our prayers on our welfare.
Self-centeredness is not a godly trait.
Sure, we know Jesus said to pray for our daily bread and that He would meet all our NEEDS according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Matthew 6:11, Philippians 4:19 NASB).
Those are valid concerns; no doubt about it. And Jesus said our heavenly really cares about those genuine needs.
But we don’t want our needs to be the center of our lives: we want knowing God and living His purposes for His glory to be our focus.
We want to be like Jesus and He lived a serving, sacrificial life.
But the Bible Clearly Teaches This is Really Important
But the Word of God clearly says that believing God is a rewarder of true seekers is a fundamental part of God-pleasing faith.
God strongly desires we believe He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. This is essential for God-pleasing faith.
Even after all these years of studying the Bible and prioritizing my relationship with Jesus, this fundamental truth sometimes fades in my mind.
Even Fundamental, Super Important Truths Can Fade in My Soul
At one level, I know it’s important and, it is true. But over time, even some of the most important truths of Scripture fade and need to be regularly refreshed in my soul.
There it is. It could not be written more clearly.
God-pleasing faith embraces the truth that God’s very nature is to reward us when we seek Him.
This is worth chewing on. Then chewed on again until it takes root in our souls.
Faith that makes God’s heart glad deeply believes that He rewards those who seek Him.
The entire Old Testament is filled with God’s constant invitation: “If you will trust Me, prioritize Me, and follow My directions, I will bless you.” Read through Deuteronomy, Psalms, Proverbs for concentrated doses of that theme.
Then, in the New Testament, Jesus taught consistently things like, “The thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10 NASB)
Paul wrote that one of the primary emphasis of His apostolic teaching was “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” (Ephesians 3:8 NASB)
God’s Deep Desire is to Bless Us
The Bible teaches us God’s directions on how to experience the highest form of life possible. It teaches us God’s design, principles, and insights on living a blessed by God life.
At the heart of that is faith that believes God rewards those who seek Him.
When we come to God believing He will reward us when we seek Him, that makes His heart glad.
Isn’t that awesome! I can actually make God’s heart glad when I believe He rewards me when I seek Him!
That’s my heart and I believe it’s yours, too. We can bring a smile to God’s face when we believe that simple, but life-changing truth.
It also takes us into new dimensions of living.
Jesus said, “all things are possible to him who believes.” (Mark 9:23 NASB)
Jesus regularly said to people facing hard or impossible situations: “don’t be afraid, only believe.”
Jesus rebuked no one for having too much faith.
Nope, He was constantly encouraging people to believe and to receive things from God that were naturally not possible.
At times, I struggle in areas of my faith; all humans do. But reading those words stirs me to look at receiving God’s promises with fresh encouragement.
God really likes it when I not only believe He exists, but that He is a rewarder when I seek Him.
Right now I’m committing to declaring those words in my daily devotional time for the next weeks:
“It pleases God when I believe He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
I would love to hear your thoughts on this and hopefully, how it is an encouragement to you.
If you want more “grow in Christ” resources, I’m currently setting up my page on Substack at https:/markfurlong.substack.com. .
