Faith in the Father

Hebrews 11:1-6

Russ Earl

What is the faith that pleases God? Do we have that kind of faith? In Hebrews 11:1 the writer says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Do we hope in what we have not seen? What is it that is not seen?

It's God, our heavenly Father above. We have hope in Him, we have faith in Him who we cannot see with our physical eyes. Do we have enough faith to follow His commands even though we cannot physically see Him?

Hebrews 11:2 says "For by it the elders obtained a good testimony." By what did the elders receive a good testimony? It was by their faith. Their faith in the unseen was a testimony to the type of men they were. It was a testimony to what was important in their lives. What does our testimony say about us? Do we have the same type of faith as the elders did? Does our faith show forth through the life that we live? We should be building up a good testimony by the faith we have in God. Others should see our faith by the testimony of our lives. One way we can reach out to others is by how we live our lives. Others can see the faith we have by all that we do and say.

In Hebrews 11:3 the Bible says, "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible."  It's by faith that we understand that God formed the world from nothing. We understand by faith that it was not made by earthly hands but was spoken into existence by God.

It's by faith that we believe God has the power to do such things. It's by faith we know that there is no other way the world could have come into existence. Thus, we have faith in what we have not seen ourselves. We show we have faith in the things unseen by man.

In verses 4 thru 5, we see examples of faith "By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God."

These two men showed great faith in their lives, they built up for themselves a good testimony (verse 2). These men both had a great faith by the actions they did throughout their lives by in faithfulness, they offered up to God. Enoch's faith was so great that he never saw death. Why didn't he see death? In verse 5 the text says " he pleased God." His testimony was that he had great faith and obedience to the unseen God. Thus he was counted as pleasing God.

Our last verse we look at is Hebrews 11:6 which says "But 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 diligently seek Him."  The verse should self explanatory for Christians, that we cannot please God without faith. Not just any faith but faith that shows how much we truly love God and how much we are willing to rely on Him. There is little faith and great faith; we are to have great faith. For without such faith, we cannot please God (verse 11).

Do we have the faith that it takes to please God? Do we have faith in the things God did that we have never seen? We are to have faith in order to please God.

Are we pleasing God by our faith? Does our testimony in life show that we have such faith? If not, then we must make the changes necessary to be pleasing to God.