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The Impossibility of Pleasing God Without Faith

The Impossibility of Pleasing God Without Faith

Last updated on: March 28, 2017 at 12:08 am by Brenda Renee Coats

The Impossibility of Pleasing God Without Faith 2017-03-28T00:08:01-07:00 Brenda Renee Coats

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I’ve been cozying up to Romans in my daily Bible reading, and I’m happy to report that I am snug as a bug there. I think a child of God, no matter how mature, could stay in Romans for an entire lifespan and never assimilate it all. It’s complicated, rich, puzzling, and convicting – and then some. I am currently hovering around chapter 9, as if something is unclear, when everything is in fact clearer than a sunny day on the western slope of Colorado. God has mercy on whomever he will, and he hardens whomever he wills. And if that makes us angry, we can just carry on to the next few verses and ask ourselves the questions presented:

Why do I find fault?

Who can resist His will?

Who am I to answer back to God?

Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”

Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

I may not like that God chooses to have mercy on some and not others, but my distaste doesn’t qualify me to question my Maker. Of course, God can handle my anger. I can shake the fist. Scream questions toward the Heavens or refuse to talk to Him. But it’s not going to change anything. God is God. Brenda is clay pot. Really, who am I to question God’s ways? And why do I do it so often in spite of knowing the prerogative of the pot is not to question, but to believe?

Take my life and let it be,
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.

That should be my cry. Not

Give me my life and let me be,
In control, Lord, more than Thee.

One cry is full of faith. The other, void of faith. To say Here’s my life, Lord takes complete trust – not only in who God has said He is, but in what God has said He will do. Faith is a touchy subject, because it is an area of sanctification. Our level of faith is constantly changing, sometimes waxing, sometimes waning. But the big idea is to identify the areas that we lack faith, and work to grow in those areas. If we struggle to believe God loves us, we should be scrambling to find verses pertinent to that specific faith crisis and embedding His truths in our minds. I’m not just pulling that idea out of a hat. Paul says in Romans that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). Couple that with the writer of Hebrews, whoever that may be, who says, “without faith, it is impossible to please God” (11:6), and we should be driven to hover around Romans or any other book of the Bible for as long as it takes our faith to blossom.

Last night, I had terrible, frightening nightmares, which I’m pretty sure were due to a dosage increase in medication. The horror not only robbed me of sleep, but of peace, and so I laid in bed in the wee hours lacking any semblance of trust that God can keep me from evil. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me?” (Question mark mine.)

Where exactly art thou in my dreams, Lord? But the Psalmist didn’t say there wouldn’t be any evil. He said I would not fear the evil, because He is with me. And so, as I often do when I lack faith, I simply prayed, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. I encountered evil in a dream, but I am unscathed. You were with me, and brought me through it, as promised. I trust you to do the same in the next round of slumber.

As I prayed, the shadow of the nightmare shrunk in cowardice, and with a few more confessions of belief, disappeared altogether. I recognized the lie, exposed the lie, confessed the lie, and replaced the lie with the truth, believing as best I knew how, by taking God at His Word.

For at least a few, pre-dawn moments, God was pleased with me!

Why we work and toil and plan and force ourselves into molds of habits that have the appearnace of godliness, but are void of faith, is beyond me. Romans 9, when it’s talking about Israel’s unbelief, says “What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, ‘”Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.'”

As I’ve said recently, there’s nothing wrong with planning or toiling. We should be doing those things. But if done as a means to our own righteousness, we’re off kilter. Devastatingly so. We are pursuing a law that will lead to righteousness, but without faith. And without faith, we cannot succeed in reaching the law and pleasing God. The heart of the problem is always a problem of the heart. So let’s make a checklist if we must, but guard our hearts with all diligence. It is deceitful above all things, desperately sick, and deserves close monitoring. It’s much easier to trust in personal good works than it is to trust in God’s finishing work. It’s easier because it comes naturally, and that is a cause for pause. Are we praying (or whatever is on the checklist) out of a heart full of faith, or are we praying out of so-called “holy” consistency, not caring about the condition of our heart, overlooking our sin, our lack of faith, and trusting in our own righteousness, which the Bible refers to as “filthy rags”?

We are saved, not of works, lest any man should boast. And we are sanctified, not solely of works, lest any man should boast. Faith and works are to be inseparable. Faith without works is dead. And works without faith is self-righteousness that leads to hell. Godspeed to all as we guard our hearts against trusting in anything or anyone but Christ to finish His work in and through us.

Now if you’ll excuse me, that “next round of slumber” I noted above has arrived, as I can no longer keep my eyes open even though it’s only 2:30 in the afternoon. Perhaps this round of slumber, evil will keep a distance. If not, I will fear not, for He is with me. (Period mine.)

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