Walking With Christ

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.(ESV)

Trusting God and trying to please God are not the same thing. One leads to hell, pain, and suffering because it makes the story about what you have done to please Him and not about how much you have trusted Him to complete His promises. Trusting God IS how you please God. It doesn’t work the other way around.

The root of good works is faith. This isn’t to say that people can’t do good things or even be selfless without faith. The result is empty is the works were done to boast of self or even just to make oneself feel better about themselves. Most of the silent good done in the world is done without a second thought and no question about reward. It’s just the right thing to do. The Pharisees boasted about how perfectly they tithed. Their reward was the praise of men. The widow told no one that she gave anything at all. Most would assume that she hadn’t given anything. If it weren’t recorded in the bible, nobody would know today that it had happened or that it meant more to God to have that one coin given in faith than it did to get that large sack of coins from the wealthy men.