Not All Faith Pleases God

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I can have faith in many things.  Idolatry is faith in the wrong thing.

The faith the Bible describes is very specific.  It isn't a faith in outcomes.  It isn't faith God will do what I think is good. It's faith that whatever God does IS good.   God-pleasing faith accepts the Bible and the God of it on His terms, in His words, and in the humility of letting those words reform the man who has the faith.

This kind of faith obeys God in the unseen outcome, and rejects the knowledge of man as a reason to obey or not obey:

Hebrews 11:6-7 NLT — And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.

God-pleasing faith is a faith in the character and majesty of God, as He describes and reveals Himself. 

God is good.  He is the only good one.  He does things that don't look good to our fallen flesh, but we do things that we believe are good that God sees as evil.  Only one of us can be God. God-pleasing faith settles that God is good no matter what seems good to me.  It refuses interpretational gymnastics and lets God make wise the simple, even though it rubs the flesh the wrong way.

Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT — “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Malachi 2:17 NLT — You have wearied the LORD with your words. “How have we wearied him?” you ask. You have wearied him by saying that all who do evil are good in the LORD’s sight, and he is pleased with them. You have wearied him by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

Isaiah 5:19-21 NLT — They even mock God and say,
“Hurry up and do something!
We want to see what you can do.
Let the Holy One of Israel carry out his plan,
for we want to know what it is.” What sorrow for those who say
that evil is good and good is evil,
that dark is light and light is dark,
that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes
and think themselves so clever.

Our flesh is at war with the Spirit of God.  The wise accept it and find out what God calls good instead of giving God their opinion of what they call good.

When I settle God is good in a way I cannot be, it changes my heart, which changes my speech, my desires, and my actions.  I stop wanting the "good to win", the "evil to lose" and start wanting God to win me to the point I bless what He blesses, wait on what He waits on, and believe what He believes.

This faith is the bridge to hope that surpasses eyesight.

The faith God enjoys produces a change in our heart, not our circumstances.  Our changed heart is what will endure through eternity.  Our circumstances will always change.

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