It is by faith that we please Him. But it is not an abstract faith it is a faith in who He is, in who Jesus has declared Him to be.
Hebrews3:7 ¶ That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice, 8 don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness. 9 There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years. 10 So I was angry with them, and I said, ‘Their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ 11 So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’” 12 Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. 13 You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. 14 For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. 15 Remember what it says: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.” 16 And who was it who rebelled against God, even though they heard his voice? Wasn’t it the people Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness? 18 And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed him? 19 So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.
What was their unbelief? They believed well enough in the wrath of God and the judgment of God. They had seen Him judge their enemies, they had seen the mountain smoke and felt it tremble and quaked with fear. They had refused the invitation to be kings and priests to God because of this fear they had embraced regarding Him. Then when they come to the edge of the promise land the heritage God has so generously offered them rooted in His goodness, they refuse to go in because they do not know Him aright. They do not see Him as good and therefore they can only see the obstacles before them, the giants of the land.
Having our perspective wrong because we have not been established in grace and rightly understood the goodness expressed through Jesus will result in an inability to take hold of God and to experience Him as we should. Instead of running headlong towards knowing Him we will shrink back for fear we might get it wrong or He might not follow through because we have messed up along the way.
About The Author
- Tim Atchley
- Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
- I currently serve as Senior Pastor of Harvest Church in Knoxville, Tn. I was sent out from Trinity Chapel of Knoxville in 1993 accompanied by my wife Sheila our four children Sarah, Hannah, Josiah & Isaac and a handful of bold, brave and committed believers determined to plant our first church. Pioneering is hard work but well worth the journey. That is why we desire to make disciples of Christ who will, like us, also embrace the call to plant churches.
