God is Looking for Faith

Whenever the weight of this world becomes too heavy and starts pressing down on me, and poisoned arrows begin to buzz by my head as the enemy shoots at me, and it seems at times that hell itself, like a boiling volcano rocks back and forth to spew up hot flames toward me, I will reach for my Bible and turn over to the 11th chapter of Hebrews, and I'll take a stroll down the corridors of that great hall of faith, and breathe in the atmosphere of those of whom the world was not worthy, and then I will reach down and dip my hands in the blood of the martyrs, and look up and cast my gaze toward the heavenly city, with those gates of pearl and streets of gold, and I am strengthened, once again, to stay in the battle, and fight the devil, and preach the true gospel of the Son of God, come hell or high water. If there is one thing I know about the Christian life, it is this, faith will get you through, through any trial, through any grief, through any sickness, through any loss. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and God is on the lookout for faith.

Each recorded exploit of faith by these worthies, listed here in Hebrews chapter 11, is introduced with two exclamation points, by faith, by faith Abel, by faith Enoch, by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, by faith Moses, by faith, it is by faith the Red Sea becomes a safe highway for the children of God, by faith those impregnable walls of Jericho come crashing down, by faith kingdoms are subdued, the mouths of lions stopped, enemy armies are turned to flight, women received their dead, raised to life again, all by faith, by faith, by faith, for without faith it is impossible to please God, but by faith all things are possible with God, God is on the lookout for faith, let us pray.