Let us turn once again to God's
Word and turn into that chapter that we read in the epistle to
the Hebrews Hebrews chapter 11 and our text is found at verse
6 Hebrews 11 verse 6 but without faith it is impossible to please
him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that
he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. I'm sure you're familiar with
this great chapter that speaks of the faithful of the Old Testament
Scriptures. This catalogue of the doings
of faith and in the context here it is of course the faith of
Enoch that is being spoken of. Enoch who did not see death but
he walked with God and was translated and he was translated because
he pleased God and then we read the words of the text but without
faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God
must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. What was it in Enoch that was
pleasing to God? It was nothing of his own doing,
it was not his own works. His was the life of faith, that
life of dependence, that life of looking to another. As we
read later in the following chapter, looking on to Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. All that's pleased God in Enoch
was that that was of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we come
to consider this verse this evening, I want in particular to take
up the subject matter, not so much of faith, but of the prayer
of faith. The prayer of faith. Without
faith it is impossible to please God, we're taught. For he that
cometh to him must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek him." What is it that we do when
we pray? We are those who approach to God. We come to Him. And we
can only approach by faith. Without faith it is impossible
to please Him. Again, Paul to the Romans says
that whatsoever is not of faith is sin. And how were those who
are by nature full of sin, full of unbelief? It was Luther who
said that unbelief is the greatest sin of all. Remember the words
of the Lord Jesus when he speaks of the ministry that the Spirit
is going to perform, how he will reprove the world of sin, he
says, because ye believe not on me. how the Spirit has to
convince a man of his awful unbelief. And that unbelief that cleaves
to us, it cleaves to our fallen nature. It's the sin that we
see there in the Garden of Eden. It is really the root of all
sins. And so, having spoken of faith,
so greatly in such detail in this
particular chapter when we come into the next chapter, chapter
12 Paul speaks of the sin which does so easily beset us and that
sin as we've said many times before is really the sin of unbelief
it besets us because of what we are as those who are the sons
and daughters of Adam and we need faith and we cannot of ourselves
believe There John Newton said, Oh could I but believe, then
all would easy be, I would but cannot, Lord relieve, my help
must come from Thee. Now it is nonsense for those
who preach to speak of duty, faith and the like. It is not
within man to believe. We need that faith that is of
the operation of God. We need that faith that is the
gift of God. And here we see the importance
of such faith. If we would be those who know
anything of God, or ever come to God, or pray to God without
faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God
must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him. Well, as we come to consider
this text, I want to divide the subject matter into two parts,
to observe two things we do tonight. First of all to say something
with regards to the object of our faith, the object of our
prayers, and then secondly to say something with regards to
the exercise of that faith. How important, how vitally important
it is that with those who know the object of faith, the object
of true prayer, the one to whom all real prayer is being addressed. We have a definition of faith
at the beginning of this chapter. The Apostle tells us what faith
is. It is the substance, or as Imogen
says, the ground, or the confidence, of things hoped for, the evidences
of things not seen. There is a definition of what
faith is, but it is interesting in Scripture to observe that
we have no other definition anywhere in the Word of God but what we
have here in the opening verse. However, what we do discover
here in Scripture is that we are constantly being reminded
of Him who is the object. The object of faith. The object
of faith is set before us. The one to whom we are to address
our faith, to address our prayers. And what does it say here in
the text? He that cometh to God must believe that He is. Who is the one that we pray to?
Well, here is His name. He is. And that in a sense is
what is derived from what God said of himself. when in Genesis
chapter 3, as Moses is receiving his call and his commission,
he is to deliver the children of Israel out of the bondage
that was Egypt, because God has heard their prayer. We made some
reference this morning to that prayer that we have at the end
of Exodus chapter 2, how they sighed and they cried, how they
groaned under the burdens that were laid upon them by the Egyptians. And God heard their cry Well,
God takes account, you see, of the poor praying of His children,
where they can scarcely utter a word, they cannot find words
adequate to express what their longings are, yet God hears the
sigh and the cry of His children. God has respect under those prayers.
That's the end of Exodus chapter 2, and then immediately in the
third chapter we're introduced to Moses. There, having fled
in the desert caring now for the sheep of his father-in-law
Jethro when the Lord appears to him and he receives his command,
his commission to be the deliverer of the children of Israel and
when he asks when he asks who it is that is sending him, what
does God say? He declares himself I am that
I am Moses is to tell the children of Israel simply this I am ascent
now I am as you know is the first person singular of the verb to
be God says I am when we speak of God we speak in the third
person so he says I am we say he is and this is the one that
we read of here in our text he that cometh to God must believe
that he is He is. He is the Unchanging One. He
is Jehovah. He is the faithful God of the
Covenant. He is Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, and today, and forever. Or look at the language that
we find time and again in the book of the Prophet Isaiah. Thus
saith the Lord, the King, of Israel and is redeemed the Lord
of hosts. I am the first and I am the last
and beside me there is no God. That's what God says of himself
there in Isaiah in that 44th chapter and in those chapters
around there 44, 46 and so forth time and again we see God declaring
himself to the children of Israel in the midst of all their idolatry.
That was the awful sin that they were guilty of. That was the
cause of God sending them into exile as he comes, as he deals
with them in the way of chastening, removing them into captivity. Why? Because they wanted to be
like the angels, like the nations round about them. They wanted
their idols. they must be delivered from all
that idolatry and the severity of God's dealings He has to come
in the way of terrible chastenings and He has to remove them out
of that land of promise take them away from all that was so
familiar to them and time and again we see God declaring Himself
as the unchanging One I am the first and I am the last and beside
me there is no God, he says. Now we see it here when we come
to the New Testament and that revelation that John is favoured
with on the Isle of Patmos as he tells us here in the opening
chapter of the book of the Revelation when he sees the glorified Lord
he sees Christ exalted now at the Father's right hand No, he's
as a dead man, he's prostrate. What does he say? He laid his
right hand upon me, saying, I am the first, and I am the last. I am he that liveth and was dead,
and behold, I am alive forevermore, amen, and have the keys of hell
and of death. For this is the object of faith. He is the one to whom we are
to address our prayers. Without faith it is impossible
to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is. He is. Why we just sang in the
metrical version of the Psalm, that 115th Psalm, and what a
contrast is drawn there between the true God and those idols. Idols of silver and gold, the
work of men's hands. Spoken of in the opening part
of that 115th Psalm. But then the address to God's
people, O Israel, trust thou in the Lord, He is their help
and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust thou
in the Lord, He is their help and their shield. Ye that fear
the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. This is the God. This is the
God to whom we are to come. Who is ever the help of His children. The guy there at the beginning
of that psalm, what does he say? Verse 3, Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He pleased. The God that we are to address
in our prayers is God. And that means He is sovereign.
Simply to say he is God, surely that's an acknowledgement of
his absolute sovereignty. Do we really believe that? How
many today pay a lip service, as it were, to the doctrine of
the divine sovereignty? So many like to call themselves
reformed in doctrine. and one's witnessed it over the
years you can go to conferences and organized by those who call
themselves reformed and there's or there can be hundreds there
I've been to ministers conferences where there's probably been in
excess of 300 ministers most of them from pastorates here
in the British Isles and yet you wonder where are all these
greats churches where the sovereignty of God is so emphasized in the
course of the preaching. Lip service is paid to these
things, but often the practice of those who would call themselves
Reformed or Calvinistic in doctrine, their practice is Arminian. I've
heard it said that some of these places it's like a Calvinistic
bus, but it simply runs on Arminian word. That's the way of it. But God is sovereign. That's
what it says there in that psalm. We just sang the words, Our God
is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He pleased. Why, even that proud man Nebuchadnezzar
was so humble before God that he had to confess the divine
sovereignty. Great Babylonian monarch-emperor
that he was, how the Lord God humbled him, took away all his
reasoning powers, he was like a beast of the field, until he
was brought to acknowledge all the inhabitants of the earth
are as nothing. Indeed, that is the God of Israel
doeth according to his will among the armies of heaven and the
inhabitants of the world. And none can stay his hand, and
none can say to him, What doest thou? Or when we pray, friends,
do we really acknowledge the sovereignty of God? He that cometh
to God must believe that He is. But as God is, so God is also
good. He's a good God. I am the Lord,
He says. I change not, therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed. What do we read here in the text?
He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. God is debtor
to no man. All God is good to all those
who are seekers after Him. The psalmist says they are good
and they do us good. And if we would but pray to Him,
and come before Him with that praying faith, would we not time
and again live to discover the goodness of God? He's a God who
hears prayers. He's a God who answers prayers.
He's a God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think. He's a God who can time and again
surprise us with His goodness. Why? He is the God of the Covenant. He's the God of the Covenant.
Remember the language that we have in the psalm, Psalm 89? That great psalm that speaks
so plainly to us concerning God and all His covenant dealings,
all His covenant faithfulness. And there in the psalm, verse
34, He says, My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing
that is gone out of my lips? Once have I sworn by my holiness
that I will not lie unto David. Who is this David that is being
spoken of? Really, it's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of David. The earlier part of the psalm,
verse 3, I have made a covenant with my Chosen, I have sworn
unto David my servant. And then later, verse 19, Then
hath Bacchus envisioned to thy holy one, and saith, I have laid
out upon one that is mighty, I have exalted one chosen out
of the people, I have found David my servant, with my holy oil
have I anointed him. Who is this David? Who is this
beloved one? It is David's greatest son. It
is the anointed of the Lord. It is Christ. It is Christ. He is that one who is the mediator
of the New Covenant. He is that one who is truly the
seed of Abraham, as we said this morning, but also the seed of
David. That's a remarkable thing, is
it not? He has spoken of time and again
in the Old Testament, by that name of David. He is truly the
Lord's beloved one. This is the Christ, the object of our faith. When we come before
God with our prayers, are we not to come as those who are
looking on to Jesus? Are we not to come through Him
as the one who is the mediator between God and man? In another
Psalm, Psalm 84, are we not to pray, Behold O God our shield,
look upon the face of Thine anointing? Or we want God to behold us in
the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that it's only in Christ that
we can find acceptance with God. And what does the Lord say as
the Lord himself in the course of his own earthly ministry encourages
us to come? He would have us to ask. He would
have us to knock. He would have us to seek. Ask
and it shall be given you, he says. Knock and it shall be opened
unto you. Seek and ye shall find. Everyone
that asketh receiveth. He that seeketh findeth. He that
knocketh it shall be opened. Every encouragement you see,
we find in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? He is the only mediator
between God and man. He is the object. The glorious
object of our praying is God. God as He has revealed Himself
to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can never
seek His face in vain. The Lord says the Psalmist, will
hear when I call unto Him. Do you believe that? That's what
it says here in the Word of God, Psalm 4 and verse 3, the Lord
will hear when I call unto Him. Are we those who are persuaded
that that is true? Or without faith it is impossible
to please Him, for He that cometh to God. must believe that he
is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. What does God do? This is a wonder
of prayer when we come and address him we discover how God is making
himself known to us, making himself real to us, revealing himself
to us and he reveals himself in all the fullness of the mystery
of his own being We discover God in all the fullness of His
Godhead. We find that God is a trinity
of persons. Think of that verse that we have
in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 18, where Paul, speaking of the
Lord Jesus, says, through Him, that is, through the Lord Jesus
Christ, we have access by one Spirit onto the Father. There we have all the persons
of the Godhead. Access to the Father. And how
is that access? It's through the Lord Jesus Christ,
the only mediator between God and man. And that access is by
the Spirit, through Christ. Through Christ we have access,
by one Spirit, by the Holy Spirit. Now the Spirit must be the one
who comes to us as the spirit of prayer, inditing our prayers
and He must come to us as the Spirit of Christ, revealing Christ
to us. Now we need that ministry of
the Spirit as well as the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ and
this is the provision that God has made for us. Remember the
words again of the Apostle there in Romans chapter 8, how the
Lord God helps our infirmities Oh, there's not only one in heaven
who intercedes for us. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
ever-living, to make intercession for all that come unto God by
Him. But there's one whom God has
given to dwell with His people here upon the earth, that blessed
minister of the Spirit. He helpeth our infirmities, says
Paul. He maketh intercession for us
with groanings that cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth
the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit. For he maketh
intercession for us according to the will of God. That's the
Spirit. That's the mind of the Spirit. It's all in accordance
with the will of God. All when we come in faith and
pride, why God makes himself known to us, reveals himself
to us. become so real in our soul's experience. And then we
know that our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Oh, the blessed object, then.
The object of all our faith, all our prayers, is the One who
is spoken of here in the text by the name He is. The great
I am, he that cometh to God must believe that he is. But let us turn in the second
place to say something with regards to the exercise of prayer. The
exercise of prayer. The exercise of faith. Without
faith it is impossible to please Him. At least two things are
necessary in the exercise of prayer. There must be a seeking
and there must be a coming. These things stand out so clearly
here in the text. We read of him that cometh to
God and we read of them that diligently seek him. And so speaking
of the exercise of prayer, I just want for a little while to look
at these two particular aspects. First of all, that seeking of
God. Isaiah says, Seek ye the Lord
while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. The seeking is equated with the
calling really. and we are to seek God whilst
he may be found we are to call upon him while he is near and
that of course is the day in which we are living this present
day this day of grace behold now is the acceptable time behold
now is the day of salvation he is not the Lord near as we come
into this house of prayer as we come under the sound of God's
Word as we attend to the reading and the preaching of the Word
He's not God near to us but are we those who as God draws near
seek Him and call upon Him God is pleased to own the means of
grace but God is so good it's not just a matter of the means
of grace, we can read God's word for ourselves, you can enter
into your closet, into the private place at home, you can read the
word of God, you can seek the face of God it is the day of
grace and what a fiver is that that we should be those who live
in this blessed dispensation, the dispensation of the gospel
of the grace of God or seek ye the Lord while he may be found,
call ye upon him whilst he is near. But what is involved if
we are those who are truly seeking after the Lord? Well again, what
does it say here in the text? We are to be those who would
be diligently seeking after him. He is the rewarder of them that
diligently seeking. How important is the adverb here?
It tells us something about the character of the seeking. And the force of this word is
to seek out, to be careful and thorough in our seeking. In the
Gospel we read of that woman in Luke chapter 15 Luke chapter 15 and verse 8, the woman who has ten pieces
of silver and she loses a piece. What does the Lord say? The words
of the Lord Jesus, Luke 15 verse 8, I, the woman having ten pieces
of silver, if she loses one piece, does not light a candle and sweep
the house and seek diligently and seek diligently, says the
Lord, till she find it. And when she hath found it, she
calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with
me, for I have found the peace which I had lost. Likewise I
say unto you, There is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner that repenteth. All friends are with those who
are diligent like that woman was, lighting a candle. She wants
light. sweeping the house, how thorough
she is, so determined to find that peace that she had lost. This is how we are to sleep.
The Lord says, you shall seek me and find me, when you shall
search after me with all your heart. There it is, you see,
that's diligence. No half-hearted measures. No
half-hearted measures. the Lord is found when we seek
after Him with our whole heart how the affections must therefore
be set set not on things below but set on the things that are
above where Christ is at the right hand of God all that singleness
of mind that godly simplicity, one thing,
one thing is needful that's the determination you see, that's
the diligence, one thing or are we those whose affections are
so often bound up with the things of time and of sense or the things
that are serene, but temporal things the unseen things are
the eternal things the things that we should be principally
concerned about. We cannot be half-hearted with
God. He sees all that is transpiring in the
very depths of our beings. We cannot fool Him. We might be able to fool others,
we might be able to deceive ourselves sometimes. but there's no deceiving
of God his eyes are the eyes of the Lord Jesus as John sees
him there in that glorious vision in Revelation chapter 1 his eyes
were as a flame of fire all so penetrating so all seeing he
looks into the very depths of our souls he knows we are to
be those who would seek Him, and we must seek Him with all
diligence. All our heart must be in that
seeking, and yet, at the same time, of course, though that
heart is a whole heart in the seeking, yet, it is also a broken
heart. The strange paradox of the Christian's
experience, why the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a
broken and a contrite heart, oh God! They will not despise. We come with a broken heart.
We come in a spirit of real repentance. Yes, when it comes to faith,
we're whole-hearted. When it comes to repentance,
we're those who are broken-hearted. And these two come together,
do they not? Faith and repentance. The ministry of the Lord Jesus
Christ as He commences that ministry, as we're told in the opening
chapter of Mark's Gospel. Proclaiming the gospel of the
kingdom. What does he preach? Faith and repentance. Faith and
repentance. The need for a whole heart. The
need also for a broken heart. Ought to be those who are so
diligent in their seeking. And God, as I said, is no man's
debtor. He is a rewarder. of all them
that would be diligently seeking after him." How the Lord delights
in such. When we come to the end of that first chapter of John, and
we're introduced to Nathanael, remember what the Lord says of
that man, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile. ought to be those who are the
real Israel of God, spiritual Israelites, guileless. Those
who are truly the descendants of Jacob. Remember how it was
that that man Jacob became Israel. Why? It was there at Penia in
Genesis chapter 32. And how was it? It's in prayer.
It's as if he's wrestling with the angel or the angel is wrestling
with him. that here he is poor limping
Jacob because the angel has touched him in the hollow of his thigh
in that wrestling and now what can he do he can do little more
than plead to the angel I will not let you go except thou bless
me that's his prayer and there Jacob becomes Israel the prince
with God he has power with the angel He prevails with the angel. And the angel, as we said this
morning, that's the angel of the Lord. Why it's the same one
that appeared unto Abraham there in Genesis chapter 18? The angel of the Lord, it's Christ
appearing. And there Jacob becomes Israel. And who are the true Israelites? Why? They are those who are guileless. are those who will cling and
cleave to the Lord. They'll come with that blessed
singleness of mind, wholehearted in their desires towards the
Lord. This is our way of speaking, friends. This is the exercise
of praying faith. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. The two things we said, there's
that seeking of God but also here again we have that coming
to God. He that cometh to God must believe that He is. He that cometh. So what did the
Lord say to the Jews there in in John chapter 5 and verse 40
ye will not come to me that ye might have life ye will not come
to me that ye might have life and is not that alas true of
all of us by nature we will not come oh it's true we cannot come of
ourselves we're dead in trespasses and sins but it's worse than
that why the carnal mind is enmity with God it is not subject to
the Lord of God neither indeed can be we are willful we are
willful in our unbelief we will not come as well as being unable
to come and yet the Lord says he that cometh to me or there
are those who come And it's those whom the Lord God is pleased
to make a willing people. All that the Father giveth me,
says Christ, shall come to me. Here it is, you see, the great
doctrines of the sovereignty of the grace of God in salvation. All that the Father giveth me. All that is the blessed man whom
the Lord chooses and cause us to approach unto God as we read
it there in Psalm 65 the gain in Psalm 110 thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power they have to be made a
willing people because of themselves they will never come they'll
refuse to come but when the Lord works in the soul and the soul
has that desire to come what then? He that cometh to God. Albert says, the apostle at the
end of chapter 12, God is a consuming fire. How can we approach this consuming
fire? How can we draw near to such
a God as this? A God of eyes too pure to behold iniquity.
A God who cannot look upon sin. All you see, friends, are sinful
creatures. There's only one way whereby
we can ever draw near to God. God has made that provision for
the sinner and He's made it in the person of His only begotten
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is one God and one mediator
between God and man, we're told, the man Christ Jesus. It is the
man Christ Jesus. It is God manifest in the flesh. It is the great mystery of the
Incarnation. It is God become a man. Bone
of our bone, flesh of our flesh, made a little lower than the
angels, we're told, for the suffering of death. He comes and He comes
to pay that dreadful price. He comes to make the great sin
atoning sacrifice. To die. The just for the unjust
to bring sinners unto God. And the only why He says, I am
the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by man. For this God, you see, He is a terrible God. He's a
holy God, a righteous God, a just God. This is the day of grace
as we've said and yet look at the language that we have later
in chapter 12 the apostle draws a contrast between Mount Sinai
and Mount Zion and I'm sure you're quite familiar
with that passage there in chapter 12 he speaks first of the mount
that might be touched, this is Sinai verse 18 following So terrible
was the sight, he says, in verse 21, that Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake. This is God in all the terrors
of the law. But he says at verse 22, But
ye are come unto Manzion, and unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
and to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which
are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to
the spirit of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of
the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh
better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh. For if they escape not who refused
him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if
we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then
shook the earth. But now, he hath promised, saying,
yet once more I shake not the earth only. but also heaven. There's a sense in which he is
quite clearly saying here that it is more terrible to behold
God in Mount Zion than in Mount Sinai. How shall we escape, he says, if we turn away from Him that
speaketh from heaven? This is the one that we are to
come to. Ye are come unto Mount Zion, he says, the city of the
living God. For to come to this God, how
can we come to Him? We can only come through Him
who is the mediator. There is no other way of entrance,
no other way of access. But how the Lord Jesus speaks
so graciously to the sinner, All that the Father giveth me,
yes, they shall come to me. He says, And he that cometh to
me, he that cometh to me, I shall in no wise cast out. Or he receives all those that
come. All that come to him. How we are to come looking unto
Jesus as we read, in that following 12th chapter and the second verse
looking on to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame and he sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God. Oh, he has endured, he has paid
that terrible price that was demanded by the Holy Lord of
God, he satisfied all those demands the soul that sinneth it shall
die, he has died may that sin atoning sacrifice once and for
all nor were to come as those who would be looking unto him and he's coming you know it's
a mark it's a mark of election blessed is that man whom they
choose us and cause us to approach unto thee says the psalmist you
say to me, how can I know that I am of the election of Christ?
I don't want to be presumptuous I want to know it of a truth,
how can I know it? The secret things belong unto the Lord the
Lord knoweth them that are His the things that are revealed
belong unto us and what has God revealed? He
has revealed this blessed truth that those who are His chosen
ones they come to Him. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach. Do you approach? You come. You
come. He that cometh to God. Oh, are
we those friends who come. And how do we come? We come by
faith. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth
on me, says the Lord, shall never thirst. There in John 6 and verse
35 we see what the coming is. It's not local coming. It's not
some physical thing. It's not the Armenian altar call,
calling people to come forward, come to the front. It's a spiritual
coming. It's believing. He that cometh
to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. It's believing. It's believing
that God is, and that God is the rewarder of all them that
diligently seeking. There is this exercise, you see.
There is to be this diligent seeking after God. There is to
be this coming to God. This is faith. And this is the faith of God's
elect. This is how they come to experience
all the blessings of that salvation that God has laid up in the person
and the work of the Lord Jesus. Oh, friends, are we those who
are persuaded of these things. We have this tremendous chapter,
this great chapter on the men, the women of faith of the Old
Testament dispensation. What a catalogue it is. And we're
reminded here in the midst of it, without faith, It is impossible
to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Oh, the Lord bless His word to
us and grant to us such a gift of praying faith. Amen.