To live by faith is to do as God directs regardless of
whether you ¹feel like it or not. So how does this work? If feelings
aren't involved what moves us?
Living by faith comes from ²knowing our faithful pursuit of God
-- our obedience
-- honors Him,
as well as ¹stretches our faith, strengthening our union and communion with Him.
Our increased union with God is the
primary reward of our faithfulness; honoring God out of love for Him is the
primary motivation. In a word it is God himself; who He
is and what He promises, that moves us to action/obedience.
Our desire to honor God comes from ²knowing his great love for us
-- love
demonstrated to us by his sending Christ
to fully restore us back to Himself. Once we taste of this sacrificial
love we want more. Faithful pursuit of Him enables us to
partake in more of who God is as infinite love and increases our hope of fully
participating in it in eternity without limit or interruption.
²Knowing and believing these things to be true is all we need to obey God
i.e. to believe these things to be true and acting
accordingly, regardless of what we ¹feel
-- though acting by faith can and often does leads to a greater sense of his love and presence
in the moment.
For "..
.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." Hebrews 11:6
ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/heb.11.6.ESV
Faith says God is who he claims to be. To not believe His claims
-- promises
-- not only dishonors him but ³harms us and is therefore not pleasing to him. What genuinely loving parent is happy when their child doesn't trust in or listen to them i.e. when the child doesn't believe the parent seeks that child's best interest through the direction they give. So it is with God our perfect heavenly parent.
_____________________________________
¹faithful pursuit of God usually feels more like death than life. This is what Christ meant when he said, "..
.to find your life you must lose it."
²knowing and believing are interchangeable.
³we miss the reward of knowing God, who is the source of life, love, and all things.
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Grace to you
Jim Deal