Those who began their Christian walk by faith frequently abandon their reliance on the truth found in the Bible. They shift their focus off of Jesus and question God’s Word’s reliability. They frequently lose focus in pursuing the Lord, and some even give up on their first love. There are some people who fall back into carnality and indulge in living a life that is focused on the flesh. Some people strive to appease God with their good deeds and the things they accomplish in this life. Others adhere to legalism and try to earn God’s favor by performing religious acts in accordance with the law.
CONCLUSION
Christians who try to live by their own power or rely on their good acts do not please the Lord because they do not believe His Word. Faith is the evidence of things that cannot be seen; thus, Christians who strive to live by their strength displease the Lord. To please God, we must have faith in what He has said. We please and delight Him when we are saved, but throughout our Christian life, we are to please Him by believing His promises are genuine and by believing He rewards those who seek Him.
Once we are adopted into God’s family, our relationship with Him can never be severed; nevertheless, our fellowship with Him can be severed if we turn away from a life characterized by confidence in God and dependence on His Word in favor of a life in which we rely on our capabilities instead. God knows that without Christ’s leadership and direction, we are destined to fail in the end because He has stated that “without Me, ye can do nothing.” However, we often exhaust every possible course of action before we are finally forced to acknowledge our helplessness and ask His assistance.
All too frequently, we fail to remember that those who faithfully seek God are blessed with His abundant grace to enable them to deal with life’s challenges. Those who earnestly seek Him will bear the lovely fruit of the Spirit, which will cause them to grow in grace and mature in faith, both of which are pleasing to our Eternal Father. When we rest in His abundant power, we always realize that it is all we require, but how often do we forego the perfect peace He promises? The simple reason is that we relied on ourselves before our Savior or lived our lives in line with what we saw rather than what God says. This causes us to miss out on the perfect peace that He promises.
The more a Christian believes that God is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek to know Him, the more they will grow in grace, mature in the faith, walk in Spirit and truth, and please Him. This is because even more will be given to the one who has much. Trusting the Word of God, believing all He says, having faith in His promises, and believing that God is a reward for those who earnestly seek to know Him.
Let us make it a point to seek the Lord with all of our hearts and to put our faith in His Word so that we might live our Christian lives in a manner that is acceptable to Him. “For without faith it is impossible to please Him,” so let us keep our faith in God and never dispute the authenticity of the Gospel message, especially in those times when His truth is hidden from our eyes or when the reality of His Word does not mirror our life-experience, “for faith is necessary to please Him.”
Let us put our full confidence in the Lord and not rest on our understanding since we know it is impossible to achieve God’s approval without both the faith that saves and the faith that sanctifies. But let us never forget that God stated, “I AM everything you need, and I AM a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Me.” Let us always remember this.
Let us not forget what Jesus stated when he introduced himself: “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life… I promise that I will never desert you or give up on you; I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” Let us believe everything that God has promised with all of our hearts, for this is what the Lord finds to be acceptable.