Up Front and Personal!

With all the walking down memory lane yesterday, I thought quite a bit about close personal relationships.  It takes a lot of work to develop and keep that type of friendship.  I think that we, in Christian circles, would call it “Love!”  Close friends normally do the kind of things that will please each other.  It is like the verses that we’ve recently discussed in Hebrews chapter eleven.  In verse five we see where God was so pleased to be around Enoch, that He finally took him home with Him to heaven. The next verse takes the example a step further by stating that the only way to please God is through our active faith.

One of the ways that Vincent’s Word Studies explains this verse is with the statement that “faith creates close personal relation.”  Think about that thought for a moment.  You can read the Bible all day long and have a cursory knowledge about God, but you won’t really develop a close and personal relationship with Him until you include Him in the various parts of your life, as evidenced through your active trust in the promises of His Word.  The relationship grows as the two of you experience His Word working for you.

Wouldn’t you like to have that same close relationship with your Heavenly Father that Enoch had with Him.  One again, think about this.  Enoch wasn’t even a born again man!  We a have better promise than he ever had!  We have the Spirit living in us 24/7!  All it takes is for us to take Him at His Word, and to step out in faith believing that “what things soever that you desire, when you pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”  (Mark 11:24 King James Version)

Hebrews 11:1 talks about “Now faith…”  This is defined as active faith.  If it is not currently active, it isn’t faith.  Faith is always in the present tense, just as God is always in the present tense for us each day!  Read through the roll call of faith in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews.  The Gods Word translation repeatedly tells how faith “leads, causes or enables” those who act upon what the Word says.  What an exciting lifestyle!  Take a step of faith and see your name written right there along with Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Rahab, all the prophets, Apostles and New Testament believers.  Get personal and upfront with your Father today!  Stay tuned and keep asking yourself… “What are you expecting today?”