Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6  HCSB

Many years ago, I went to a charity event which was being covered by the local news media.  The reporter showed up in a pastel, vertically striped, shirt.  The shirt had blue, pink, yellow and green stripes.  Nice shirt, but he paired it with a tie that was diagonal stripes of bright blue, bright red, and gold.  The tie was nice also, but it just didn’t go with the shirt.  The two did not match.  The pale pastel colors combined with the jewel tones, ugh!  The two just did not go together.

You know what else just doesn’t go together?  A negative attitude in a Christian.  Either you have faith in God or you don’t.  If you have faith in God then others should see a hope in you.  Others see a positive person.  Others  see faith in you.

If you are going to church and praising God on Sunday, but grumbling, fault finding and complaining the rest of the week, you are wasting your time my friend.  Our scripture passage today tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God.  You can’t be fearful and faithful.  You can’t have this “nothing is ever going to go right for me” attitude and please God.

Think of it this way.  What if you did all you could do for your child?  What if you wanted to bless them beyond measure?  But your child always walked around like a sour puss.  What if your child always said that nothing ever went right in their life?  Would you be happy with your child when you are giving them all you have?  I think not.  You might just decide to exercise a little tough love and not give them anything, right?

Years ago, I worked at a youth shelter.  The youth were there because they had been removed from their home either due to parental abuse or neglect or because of running away from home and other types of ungovernable behavior.  They got a small allowance each week depending on their behavior, it could be up to three dollars.  Not much money, but on Friday nights we took them to spend their money.  Some opted for a value meal at a drive through.  Some wanted to pay a dollar for a movie rental back when there were stores that actually rented VHS tapes and DVDs.  A store near my home rented movies for .50 each.  So, when I worked on Fridays, I would stop and rent two or three movies so that the kids wouldn’t have to spend their money on the movies and could splurge on fast food or ice cream or whatever.  Anyway, they really appreciated it the first few weeks.  But after about three weeks, they began to complain that they had seen that movie or that they wanted to watch another movie.  So I stopped bringing movies and let them spend their meager allowance on movies they wanted.

So, imagine you are God.  Imagine that you have given a bunch of low life sinners your one and only Son.  Imagine that you allowed Him to suffer a horrible, humiliating death so that these low life sinners may have eternal life with you in glory.  Then imagine that this low life sinner has allegedly accepted your Son as his savior, but then after some time begins to grumble and complain.  No matter what you do, it’s never enough.  Would you be happy?  I think not.

When I had left home early and spent my money and my time on those movies, only to have the kids grumble and complain, I was aggravated.  I felt unappreciated.  I decided that no matter what I did, it was never going to be enough.  So I stopped.

My friend, you don’t want God to stop.  You want God to always be at work in your life.  But, if you don’t have faith, you can’t please him.  If you choose to spend your days grumbling and complaining, you are only hurting yourself.

Abraham was a man of great faith.  In Romans 4:17 we are told that “He believed in God, who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist.”

I don’t know about you, but I serve an all powerful God.  There is nothing that my God can’t do.  I learned many years ago that serving my negative thoughts and past disappointments only led to more disappointments.  I serve a God who can raise the dead to life.  I serve a God who created the entire universe from nothing.  I serve a God that can handle whatever life throws my way.  I am not going to let doubt and negativity enter into my relationship with Him.

I pray for you today that you don’t either.  If you are running around telling everyone who will listen how nothing is ever going to go right in your life, you are probably right.  But if you are running around praising God and letting others know that even though things may not be going your way right now, God’s got this, then you are right.  God’s got this.  Nothing is too big for him to handle, even your negative attitude.  So stop your whining and complaining. Give it over to God today and be amazed at what He can do.

Have a great day!