Welcome back! If you are just joining us, we are using the YouVersion Bible App to follow a devotional together. Read THIS POST to get all the information you need to join in and then you can read THIS MORNING’S POST to see the promises we are focusing on this week.

As I was looking through the promises this week I thought I was reading the promises from last week because the promise from Jeremiah is so very similar! I think God repeats himself because we have such a hard time believing nearly anything the first time. How often do you hear something powerful and still hold doubt in your mind? God repeats himself so that we have a chance to let these amazing promises actually sink in by reading them over and over in various ways throughout the Bible.

With that being said, the promise I chose to focus on this week is…

I reward you for wanting to be close to Me. Hebrews 11:6

It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6 MSG

Do you need evidence and facts to believe something is true or real? Or can you simply accept something based on your beliefs and a feelings? When it comes to God we need to have faith or whatever we think about Him means nothing. We can’t prove and have hard facts about God. We can see evidence of Him and His works but to an unbeliever the evidence we present means nothing.

Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we don’t see (Hebrews 11:1). We need to have hope in our future of eternity and we must be certain of God working in our lives.

If you’ve never taken the time to listen to another believer’s testimony I want to encourage you to find one. Ask a friend how they came to Christ or a powerful moment in their walk with God. I guarantee you there is a strong element of faith woven through the story. When we step back and stop trying to control everything around us we are acknowledging that God is the one truly in control. We must exercise faith in Him in order for our faith to grow!

During the most challenging financial years we had as a young couple we could have paused our tithing. We weren’t sure where all the money for bills would come from and that extra money we were gave from each paycheck could have helped us. But we trusted in God’s provision and He rewarded us for our faithfulness. Our bills were paid every month and year after year Micah received a small raise. We handed our finances over to Him because He asked us to do so. It wasn’t always easy but it grew our faith as a newly married couple and has kept us faithfully tithing month after month.