The Absolute Priority of Faith

On a warm summer evening in August between my junior and senior year of high school, I went on an interesting date. Well, it was interesting for me anyway. My date took me to Lakecrest Baptist Church in Waterford. It was a traditional intimate Sunday night gathering and the pastor shared a very passionate and loud message warning of God’s judgement and the urgency of salvation from Hell. During the message, my thoughts went back to Awana.  I remember being “saved” at Awana. As a matter of fact, I raised my hand every week at Awana to “ask Jesus in my heart” because with it came a full size candy bar. I was baptized and confirmed in a Lutheran church and attended with my family until I was in 9th grade, and my memory of those gentle teaching sermons which our pastor called, “Epistle Lessons” were nothing like what I heard at the Baptist church that night.  Now, I was curious and I had questions, specific questions; like “Where did God come from?”, “Where was He before Genesis?” “How was he created?” I couldn’t wrap my head around God. I wanted immediate and satisfactory answers. And do you know how my date responded? He said, “you just have to have faith!”  Umm… ok, where do I get some of that? How do I get faith?  My date went on to explain that I need to believe what was in the Bible.  I then asked him to show where in the Bible were the answers to my specific questions of “Where did God come from?”  Needless to say, I was not satisfied and unwilling to “believe” anything. I stubbornly exclaimed that he get me those answers and I let him know that I certainly wasn’t going to read some dated archaic book (the Bible) to try and seek out answers. Nope, I wasn’t going to do the work-I just wanted evidence and proof of God’s existence.

One thing I do know now, 40+ years later is that faith is vital, it needs to be an absolute priority. The writer of Hebrews writes, “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. Hebrews 11:6”

I don’t know where you are in your journey of faith, but can I encourage you with something? Faith takes courage and diligence. It is not passive. We need to actively pursue and seek after God. We need to dive into His word and be in relationship with Him. We need to continually nurture our spiritual growth and trust that God will sustain. Don’t make the stubborn and lazy mistake that I did, but instead, be persistent  in going after God with all of your heart, strength and might.