Impossible To Please?

by Bro. Craig Amenell
10/24/2023

Hebrews 11:6 - “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.”

Have you ever met anyone who is impossible to please? Perhaps you work with one, are friends with one, or maybe even live with one. No matter what you do and no matter how hard you try they just cannot be pleased. There is always something lacking and oftentimes they cannot even tell you what it is, that is how impossible they are.

This week I spoke with a man who is a geophysicist. He told me that it is impossible to believe that there is a God. During the duration of our conversation, he laid out for me what he believed to be wise defenses for his lack of belief in God. I would call it his lack of faith but the word seemed as bitterness on his tongue when he felt required to use it.

Many proud and blasphemous things spewed from his mouth as he suggested the uselessness of prayer, the absurd supernatural claims of the Bible, and the foolishness of eternal hope just to name a few.  He boasted that he once attended a seminary for fun and never received a satisfactory answer to any of the theological questions that he posed to the professors. I would imagine that no amount of sound Bible doctrine is capable of pleasing this man.

He went on to brag about his strong understanding of how the universe functions and its ability to sustain itself, which most are unable to grasp. He made sure to explain that he did not hold it against unlearned individuals who were so ignorant as to believe in an eternal God whom they falsely gave credit for keeping everything together. He believed that doing so would portray oneself as having an unkind character and unnecessarily cause them to be ill-thought of by others.

All this he said while forgetting that I started the conversation, and out of concern for his eternal soul asked if he knew whether or not he would go to heaven when he died. To which he answered, “There is no heaven,” with a smile on his face. Which segued through his unofficial doctoral dissertation against the faith from which I have touched upon.

The one thing that it would take for this man to please God is the very thing he is unwilling to exercise, faith. Pleasing God, however, is the furthest thing from this man’s mind. His life has been spent in pursuit of making himself wise and in so doing he has become a fool. For, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God” (Psalm 14:1). He could stand to learn one final lesson, that “the foolishness of God [whom he claims to deny the existence of] is wiser than men [which most assuredly includes him]” (I Cor. 1:25).

For this man to ever please God seems to be an impossibility. Although it almost seems unfair to compare, anytime that a Christian chooses a response other than faith they too are failing to please God.

God is not impossible to please! What does it take to please Him? Faith, for it is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). What satisfies an eternal God and makes you right before Him? Specifically, faith in Him. He is and He will. “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Rom 4:3).

Something so simple that costs us nothing and gives God everything He desires from us. The simplicity of faith has never ceased to confound the wise of this world. Oh, Christian may we be rich in faith for that is the substance that pleases God.