Hebrews 6:1continued

Hebrews 6:1 continued

Faith in God

We now come to the second of the “elementary truths” which is “faith in God.” It seems very simple and, at first sight, needs little explanation! It’s only when we stop and reflect on this phrase that we begin to realise how profound it is. 

There are many, many levels of faith in God. They start with the basic belief that God, Yahweh, exists. There is a Being who transcends mankind, the earth we live in and the heavenly realms above, He is the all-seeing, all-hearing, all-knowing One who we call the Lord God. That simple statement is, for many, the beginning and the end of faith, they never make it beyond the stage of accepting the existence of a superior deity who rules over all.

Having made that step of faith we now have to recognise our dependency and how we might please and show respect to such a great Being. We also must dismiss all inferior gods and the worship of created things rather than the Creator. That, in effect, dismisses all other religions and faiths, most of which are the figments of men’s imaginations or poor representations of the truth that are thrust on the world by the devil. 

In pursuing our goal of faith in God, there is only one source of absolute truth, so we must put our faith in His Word, in the Scriptures, and believe that these are His love letter to us, a vivid and powerful expression of His character, His heart and His involvement with mankind. Without a desire to learn and know more of God’s will and His ways, there is little hope of faith growing. 

From there, of course, we begin to recognise our own sin, failure and complete inability to attain God’s standards and therefore His presence. This is a daunting moment in the journey of faith; the history of the Jews is littered with their hopeless attempts to meet God’s standards and to obey His laws. How can we improve on that? The truth is, they were meant to fail, the Lord was showing us that mankind cannot keep His rules and that we are inept and pathetic creatures when we try to do so. There must be another way, a better way! The revelation that Christ Jesus came, as God’s Son, to take away our sin and to make a way for us to reach God as individuals, to overcome death and to experience the Spirit of this living God for ourselves can only be gained by faith. That faith is a gift and requires a giant leap of trust from us. Faith is not just believing the facts, it is also applying them! 

From that moment of faith springs countless other opportunities to embark on a journey that allows us to live for God in a world that opposes him, fighting an enemy who hates Him, and dealing with the innate failure within ourselves and the daily challenges that we face. In all of this, faith in God grows and develops into a secure fortress that protects and provides for us in this world and prepares us for the world to come. “Faith in God”, it’s simple, isn’t it? 

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