Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Tests of faith come in a variety of forms. As Lori and I were landing in the Los Angeles airport recently I was beginning to get anxious about being able to make it to our connecting flight. The plane had made good time in the air and we arrived about 15 minutes ahead of schedule, however, since we were early there was no place for us to disembark from the aircraft. I knew the 57 minutes we had to deplane, get our luggage, get through US customs, get back into the airport through TSA, find our gate, and board the final leg was not enough. How was all this going to take place in 57 minutes?

As we were exiting the arrival gate we struck up a conversation with an elderly Guatemalan woman. She was small in stature and her English came with a strong Spanish accent. When I shared with her my concern about making the connecting flight she blurted out, “You just gotta have faith!”

Without faith it is impossible to please God… At that moment I was so relying on my time calculations, layout of the airport, expectation of long delays in customs and TSA, and an understanding that it “simply wasn’t going to work out.” For sure, this wasn’t pleasing to God. I didn’t pray, I didn’t find rest in Him, I simply did the math and it wasn’t going to add up.

Figuring it all out isn’t faith. Resting in and trusting that the Lord had me there at that time for that purpose and trusting that regardless of whether I made the flight or not, He was still God and still on the throne. Once we got on the flight (and we had almost 20 minutes to spare) I looked at Lori and said, “You just gotta have faith,” with the best Spanish accent I could muster up. She wasn’t amused! Oh, we laughed about it, but the entire time she was trying to bring me to the place of peace that she was experiencing and until my buns were in the seat I was having none of it.

When we draw near to God in faith it is not only pleasing to Him, but this verse in Hebrews says that he rewards those who seek him. Often God will place us in situations that are recipes for unbelief. A difficult friendship, a work or school situation that seems impossible, or even a time crunch that seems completely unrealistic to achieve. But God, in his sovereign grace, always seems to get us right where we need to be at just the right time, and in our case, with 20 minutes to spare.

As his children the thing he finds pleasing is when we trust him. When we have so much confidence in his provision and goodness that we step out wherever and whenever he calls regardless of whether we can figure it out or not. When we lack faith it says more about who we think God is that who we think we are. It says to him that he is not to be trusted and that we have a better idea of how things should work out. But as we diligently seek him in faith, he rewards us by being faithful even though we are faithless.

May you seek Him today faithfully in all that you do trusting that he is faithful.

Blessings,
Keith