Have you ever tried to make something happen all on your own — pushing, planning, and worrying — only to realize that the outcome was never really in your hands to begin with?
We’ve all been there. Whether it’s trying to control a situation, fix a problem, or map out every next step, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking it all depends on us. But faith reminds us otherwise.
This devotional came to you from St Andrews, Scotland — a long way from the coops and the garden rows. Distance has a way of making the point for you. You cannot check on anything. You cannot fix anything from there. You find out quickly how much of your life was only ever held together by God anyway.
The Letter Behind the Verse
Hebrews is an unusual book. We do not know who wrote it. What we do know is who it was written to: Jewish believers who were tired, pressured, and seriously considering going back to the faith they had come from. Not dramatic rebellion — just drift. The slow kind. The kind that happens when following Jesus costs more than you expected and the old way looks easier.
So the writer builds an argument, chapter after chapter, that Jesus is better. Better than the angels, better than Moses, better than the old sacrifices. And then, in chapter 11, the argument stops and a list begins.
It is a roll call of people who had no idea how things would turn out. Noah building for a flood nobody had seen. Abraham leaving without a forwarding address. Sarah laughing. Moses choosing the harder road. Rahab, who had no business being on any list of the faithful, and who is on it anyway.
Verse 6 sits right in the middle of that company. It is not a rule handed down from a distance. It is a conclusion drawn from a long line of ordinary, frightened, inconsistent people who trusted God with something they could not see.
Faith Is Where It All Begins
Faith is where it all begins. Not in what we do, not in how much we know, not in how hard we try — but in believing, without hesitation, that God is exactly who He says He is and His promises are fulfilled in Him.
Pleasing God isn’t about performance. It’s about trust. Faith is complete and total confidence that what God has promised, He will do. It’s not based on what we bring to the table, but on God’s commitment to setting things right the way He wants them set.
Two Beliefs, Not One
Look closely at what the verse actually asks of us, because it is asking for two things, not one.
That He exists. Coming to God means believing He is real — no second-guessing, no backup plans, no “just in case.”
That He cares. Not just in some broad, distant way, but personally, deeply enough to reward and respond when we earnestly seek Him.
Most of us clear the first one without blinking. It is the second one where we stall. We will say God is real all day long and still quietly operate as though He is busy elsewhere, occupied with larger matters, unlikely to be paying attention to this particular week of ours.
That is not a doctrine problem. That is a trust problem. And it is the one this verse is actually after.
What This Looks Like on a Tuesday
It looks like praying before you strategize instead of after every plan has failed. It looks like the decision you keep re-running at two in the morning, handed over and left there. It looks like doing the next right thing without needing to see the whole staircase first.
So — faith isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about knowing Jesus, the One who does.
Watch This Week’s Devotional
A Prayer for This Week
Lord, I believe You are real. Help me believe You care. Take the thing I keep picking back up and hold it, because I have proven I cannot. Teach me to seek You before I try to solve it. Amen.
The Passage
“It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach and come to God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to reward and respond to those who seek him.”
Read the passage in full on Bible.com.
Taking It Into Your Week
- Name the one situation you are trying hardest to control right now. Say it out loud, then hand it over.
- Ask yourself which you actually believe: that God exists, or that God cares about you. They are two different beliefs, and most of us stall on the second one.
- Read Hebrews 11 all the way through this week. It is a long list of ordinary people who had no idea how things would turn out.
More Farm Sunday Devotionals
Pass on the Good News. Now that’s BombDiggity.
Written by
Lane and Jules Morris
Authors and University of Tennessee faculty writing from our farm in East Tennessee about gardening, the farm kitchen, faith and designing a flourishing life at any age. More about us
