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But 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 diligently seek Him. Heb 11:6
We are so familiar with this Scripture. In fact, we are saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8,9), and it is God’s gift, and we have nothing to boast about it. This faith is imparted to us by the hearing of the Word of God (Rom 10:17). It is purely God’s sovereign strategy to help us connect with Him again. There is nothing that we could boast about. It is purely the grace of God towards sinners.
Have we taken faith for granted in the process of being accustomed to its functionality more than God’s purpose behind its inception? Without a shadow of doubt, faith is a tool. And it is a God-made tool. To help us come to Him again. To help us fulfill His desire and plan. To help us please Him again. To accomplish His will. Faith is a tool for blessing when we are inclined towards God and His will. Conversely, can it be possible to use this very faith to make God fulfill our needs, our desires, and our will?
That should trigger our senses. Does faith come with God’s sovereignty embossed on it? Or is it at the mercy of the one who uses it? Every tool has pros and cons. Faith does. Especially when we use it to fulfill our will against God’s will. Now to the million-dollar controversy, faith is not a tool to make God our servant, meeting our demands where our ‘self’ is on the throne; rather, it is a tool given to us to become His faithful servants.
We need faith for miracles, faith for healing, faith for finances, faith for prosperity, and faith to please God. Faith is the basic element by which we function in our Christian life. The point is: when our ‘ego’ is not properly crucified, and our ‘self’ is still ‘god’ within us, demanding from God is questionable. Why are we not demanding things like humility, sacrifice, love, service, kindness, care, etc? Why is faith always associated with the material and perishable things of this world?
Is there a need for balance? Yes, there is. When Jesus is seated on the throne of our hearts, when our self is totally crucified, when our old-man is dead and buried, when we are risen with Christ by His Spirit, when our desires are spirit-led, our emotions are Christ-like, our will is replaced with God’s will, then we are more than ready to use faith to fulfill God’s purpose on this earth. More than faith, it is our faithfulness that gets rewarded.