Original Entry: September 3, 2008
McMinnville, OR
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. Hebrew 11:6
In an
effort to increase my archery odds this year I put together an archery tournament
at our church. It was a summer long 3-D
archery tournament where men were required to shoot the 2-mile, 25 target
courses at least five times throughout the course of the summer in order to
qualify for the $100 winning prize. To
add to the pressure we made a rule that no man could shoot alone. The motive
behind this was that to help men make the shot count under pressure.
However,
one week into the archery season I am not motivated at all. For the first time in my life I am not excited
about hunting as much as I am about watching my boys hunt, going on my dad’s
elk hunt in the fall, and helping a friend kill his first animal. I am simply not passionate about seeking big
game for the sake of personal reward this year.
I am sure it will soon change!
This
summer something else happened that I hadn’t planned for and, quite frankly,
wasn’t expecting. I went nearly a month
without writing a journal entry or going on a Morning Prayer walk.
In a word,
I was bored.
I was bored
with the same old rote pursuit of God. I
was bored with the same routine I have been doing for the past 20 years. But God isn’t boring-people are.
This verse
confronts men with two part components of faith. First, faith begins with the simple notion
that “he exists.” God is
the only un-created being in the Universe. Think about that. God came from
nowhere. He simply is. When God says, “I
am” (Exodus 3:14) He means it!
The second
characteristic of faith according to Hebrews
11:6 is, “he rewards those who earnestly
seek him.” It’s not good enough
for a man’s faith to “believe that he
exists” even the demons do that and shudder (James 2:19). Faith must
move into the realm of the “earnestly
seek” mode to be a faith that truly motivates, inspires, and moves a man to
pursue the heart of the King.
