Faith in God

Hebrews 11:5-6 (NIV)

5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

The apostle proposes a question, how can a person please God who does not believe God exists to begin with? For it is impossible to please someone that you don’t believe exists - for you would not know where to even start as to conceive an action to do something pleasing.

In the fall of 1999, I taught a Bible study course on the Psalms. It became clear to me that I was barely scratching the surface of what the Bible commanded and promised regarding prayer. Then came the dark weeks in New York after 9/11 when our whole city sank into a kind of corporate clinical depression, even as it rallied. For my family the shadow was intensified as my wife, Kathy, struggled with the effects

of Crohn’s disease. Finally, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. At one point during all this, my wife urged me to do something with her we had never been able to muster the self-discipline to do

regularly.

She asked me to pray with her every night. Every night. She used an illustration that crystallized her feelings very well. As we remember it, she said something like this: Imagine you were diagnosed with such a lethal condition that the doctor told you that you would die within hours unless you took a particular medicine—a pill every night before going to sleep. Imagine that you were told that you

could never miss it or you would die. Would you forget? Would you not get around to it some nights?

No—it would be so crucial that you wouldn’t forget, you would never miss. Well, if we don’t pray together to God, we’re not going to make it because of all we are facing. I’m certainly not. We have to pray, we can’t let it just slip our minds. [Tim Keller, Prayer, Penguin Group, 2014).

If we don’t believe in God how can we muster the desire to pray to God for our own needs. We have to pray, we can’t let it just slip our minds. And we must have faith in God to know He is listening and responding to our prayers.