Pleasing To God (Heb. 11:5-6)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 05-28-03

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Pleasing to God

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                         Reference:  Hebrews 11:5-6

 

             Message of the verse:  “5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. 6 And 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 seek Him.(NASB95)  “It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—‘suddenly he disappeared because God took him.’  But before he was taken up, he was approved as pleasing to God.  So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith.  Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”  (NLT)  “5  By faith Enoch was translated—not to see death, and was not found, because God did translate him; for before his translation he had been testified to—that he had pleased God well, 6  and apart from faith it is impossible to please well, for it behoveth him who is coming to God to believe that He is, and to those seeking Him He becometh a rewarder. (YLT)

            In the story of Able in yesterday’s diary his brother killed him because he was faithful to God, and in today’s story of Enoch he was taken away to be with God without dying because he was faithful and pleasing to God.  Many students of the Bible believe that this is a picture of the Rapture of the Church spoken of in 1Thes. 4:13-18. I like the Young’s translation of this verse because it leaves out the word God in the first part of the verse and simply says “impossible to please well.”  It surely refers to God, but the word for God is not in the Greek text.  Verse six says that whoever wants to be please God must believe that He is, but it goes on to say a bit more on how we are to please God, and that is that we must make a consecrated effort to sincerely seek Him.  In the book of James chapter two, and verses nineteen, and twenty, James says that it takes more than just knowing that there is a God to be pleasing to Him, and the reason he gives for this argument is that the Devil and his demons too, believe that there is a God.  “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.  But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There is no doubt that God has had a wonderful impact on my life since He saved me in January of 1974.  I knew little about who He truly was before He save me, but I did believe that he existed for many years before that wonderful event.  In one of the translations the end of verse says that we are to diligently seek God, and that is what I want to do with my life is to take the time to truly find out about God by reading and studying His Word each day, speaking and listening to God through prayer, and to do better in memorizing and meditating on His Word as I go through my day.

 

The Word of God was indeed refreshing to me as I read it this morning.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  As I stated yesterday these steps of faith that I am writing down on this spiritual diary are steps that must have a reference from the Bible for me to stand on and put my trust in God in.  I am still very much thinking about the storm that the Lord has put many, including myself and wife in, and that is the huge problem we possibility of loosing our entire life savings.  This gives me a righteous anger that a fellow believer who has the trust of many other believers to help them with their income would allow himself to get his life in such a bad state spiritually so that the evil one would be able to take advantage of his weakness in order to put a heavy burden on their lives.  At the same time I am praying for Andy that God would be pleased to revive his life, and not just for the sake of those who have trusted him, although that is a good reason to pray for his revival, but that the Lord God would be lifted up and receive glory and honor from this.  I do trust the Lord to see me through this storm that He has sent us out into because His Word says that He will pray for us, and that He will come to us in the midst of this storm, and that He will even take the time to give us more faith as we go through this storm, and that He will see us through to the other side of this storm.