HOW IS YOUR FAITH TODAY?

A group of Christians wanted to change the way they greeted each other. Instead of using typical greetings such as “How are you?” or “How’s your day going?” they decided to adopt a greeting they felt was more encouraging for believers. Right or wrong, they felt that most of the typical greetings caused people to focus on their feelings but, as Christians, we should encourage each other in our faith. So the group adopted the greeting, “How’s your faith today?”

I rather like the idea of using a greeting like this. Instead of focusing on the latest news or weather and putting our attention there, using a greeting like this helps remind us that our view of life is not to be temporal. It reminds us that our life with Him is not guided by feelings but by faith, that we are called by Him to be people of faith.

One of the more intriguing characters in the Bible, at least to me, is Enoch. Why? Because of the very limited amount of information we are given about him. Some very challenging insights are contained in the few verses that speak of Enoch.

We first meet Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah, in Genesis 5. The world was spiraling downward with the sin and corruption that would cause God to bring judgment on the entire world through the flood but Genesis 5:24 says that, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (ESV). In other words, God caught him up and translated him from this world directly into His presence. According to the Word, this happened to only one other man, the prophet Elijah (2 Kings 2:11).

The Book of Hebrews gives us an additional brief insight into Enoch’s life: “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him.  Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5, ESV). The conduct of Enoch’s life was pleasing to God!

The New Living Translation puts that second sentence this way: “For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God.”

But then Scripture adds this qualifying statement that really helps us to understand how very important faith is and that it is only by faith that we can please God.

“And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (11:6, NLT).

I do not know what you want your life to accomplish, what your endgame goal really is, but I do know what mine is. There are a lot of things I want to do well: I want to be a good husband, a good father and grandfather, a good leader, a good friend, a good witness. I think all of these are important, but more than anything else, I want to finish my life knowing that I have pleased God!

My fondest hope is that when I get to heaven Jesus will look to see who is coming next, see me, and exclaim with a smile, “Well done, well done! Come over here and sit down; we have lots to talk about.” I want Him to be pleased by the way I lived my life and sought after Him.

“And it is impossible to please God without faith.” What does it mean “to please God”? I think we are given the most important understanding of this in the first passage that we looked at in Genesis: “Enoch walked with God.” It does not say that God walked with Enoch or God was “my co-pilot.” No, it says that “Enoch walked with God,” meaning that Enoch understood the direction that God was going and he walked in harmony with Him, he got in step with Him. More than once I have messed up by asking God to get in step with the way I was going rather than being open and obedient and following His direction.

Far too often our human desire is to have God do things our way instead of understanding that to please Him we must seek Him, we must understand what He wants to do. When we do this, that understanding then becomes our marching orders.

I believe that in order to please the Lord, we must:

• Be focused on Him: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2, NKJV).
• We must be committed to and obedient to His Word (Romans 10:17).
• We must allow the Holy Spirit to be active in our lives — leading us, teaching us, revealing the Word to us and allowing Him to pray through us when we don’t know how to pray (John 16:13-15).
• We must be firm in our faith — “pleasing faith” stands firm in the face of all challenges (1 Corinthians 16:13).
• We must not stop worshiping, no matter how difficult the trial. Worship is an act of faith and leads the way to victory (Philippians 4:4-6).

So in closing, “How’s your faith today?”