Without Faith It Is Impossible To Please God

Last week I had the privilege of teaching the Ladies Bible Study. The subject was "Why do I keep going around that same mountain?" We studied the Israelites and the reasons why they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years when the trip should have taken days. Then we looked at the relevance of their wanderings (or going around the mountain) to our own lives.

Just days before my teaching on this subject, we had three discouraging things happen to us. On Tuesday my husband came home and told me that he would be laid off after the first of the year, leaving us without medical insurance. On Wednesday, Trent and I were rear ended while coming home from the chiropractor's office. (How ironic!) We both suffer from neck, head and back injuries, but are thankful to God because it could have been a lot worse. Then we received some bad news from one of our sons. My faith started to quaver and I could almost hear the Holy Spirit say, "Sure, go ahead Cindy. Teach the women how to stop going around that mountain while you take another trip around it!"

As we study the Israelites, we see how they grumble and complain at everything that happens instead of trusting God. This scenario keeps repeating itself. Each time God becomes angry, but Moses goes to bat for them and God forgives and answers Moses' plea. When the spies were sent to check out the promised land, they came back with their reports. Yes, the land was great, the fruit was spectacular and surely the land was flowing with milk and honey just as God had said, BUT...the people were giants. They were afraid to go into the land because (Number 13:33) "...we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight...." What was this? It was a LACK of FAITH! The result was that the people had to wander for 40 years and anyone 20 years of age or older would die during that time, never entering the promise land. Caleb and Joshua were to be the only exception, because they had faith and trusted in God.

What a lesson that is for me! With all this uncertainty that is happening in our lives, we must have faith in God. Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him...." That means that we can't even begin to please God without faith.

I think of those of you out there who have a child with special needs. If anyone needs faith in God, it is a parent of one of God's precious gifts. (And, by the way ALL children are precious gifts.) The future is unsure, and even somewhat scary at times. How wonderful it is to be a child of God and to know that He will take care of my child!