Does My Faith Please God?

"By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God" (Hebrews 11:5).

Now this is a good way to bring on eternity in my eyes. "Enoch was taken up..." Enoch became the father of Methuselah when he was just a "lad" of sixty-five. Then the Bible tells us that he walked with God for three hundred more years after having Methuselah. Wow! They must have had some really good drinking water in those days. Of course his son Methuselah was no "spring chicken" at his death either. In fact, you may not know this, but Methuselah was nine hundred and sixty-nine years old when he finally died. He was the oldest person in recorded history. I can't get my head around that long of a life. My wife's grandmother reached one hundred and eight years old and I thought that was some trick (just a sidebar. Thought it might be interesting to some of you).

What is interesting and inspirational about this verse is that Enoch was taken up so that he should not experience death. Now I'd be interested in that kind of deal. Sometimes when I feel real sorry for myself I feel like I've experience my share, and someone else's share of pain so being "taken up" rather than dying could really be a good thing.

But what is really unique about this verse in the faith chapter of Hebrews is that Enoch was taken up because he was "pleasing to God." Okay, now I'm really confused. I don't want this cancer because it will kill me. I don't want anymore back surgeries because of incompetent doctors. I don't want to get sick because I might die; I just want to be pleasing to God. WAIT A MINUTE!!! Enoch was pleasing to God and God just reached down one day and took him.

So here is the bottom line. Enoch did not have to experience death because of the witness he was, what he did, how he testified with his faith in God. It actually says, "he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God." You know, it doesn't really matter if we are taken up, taken over, taken through just so long as we are "taken by God." Wouldn't you agree. None of us know if we will be here later on to read this devotion, do we?

By faith Abel offered, by faith Noah prepared, by faith Abraham was called, by faith Sarah conceived. What do they all have in common? Faith! "By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death..." Truly, God has not asked a lot of us. He just wants us to live by faith. My wife has a little pedometer that measures the number of steps she takes in a day. I wish I had a meter that would measure my level of faith each day.

When was the last time you checked your "Faith-O-Meter?"

Dave