Faith is a Verb (or it should be)

God must long to convince us He really wants only our good!  In fact, in Hebrews 6:13-18, God swears that it is His fervent desire to bless us.

Andrew Murray pointed out: "Oh if we would but take time to tarry in the presence of this God and to listen to Him swearing to us that He will be faithful, surely we should fall down in confusion that we ever harbored for a moment the doubt which thinks it possible that He may be untrue and not keep His word."  He goes on, "In the Christian life there is a lack of steadfastness, of diligence, of perseverance.  Of all the cause is simply lack of faith.  And of this again the cause is the lack of the knowledge of what God will and is, of His purpose and power to bless most wonderfully, and of His faithfulness to carry out His purpose."

He is.  He is God - creator, sovereign, loving Father, eternal righteous, holy, almighty, and so much more.  And, He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. 

In Greek, the noun "faith," and the verb "believe" are from the same root word.  In other words, "faith" is both a noun and a verb.  It is unfortunate that it is not so in English.  "Believe" is just used to lightly and for to many insignificant things.  The significance of "must believe that He is" is too easily glossed over.

God has given us six senses.  (Yes, six.)  With five of them, we experience the physical world.  God is a spiritual being and cannot be fully experienced with our five physical senses.  To know Him requires faith.  Faith is not a blind leap into the unknown.  It is the sense by which we experience the spiritual.  By faith we experience the spiritual just as we use to sight to perceive light, and hearing to perceive sound.  You cannot see until your eyes are acted upon by light.  You cannot hear until your eyes are acted upon by sound.  You cannot "faith" until your faith is acted upon by the Spirit.

To come to God, we must "faith" first of all that He is - that He exists and that He exists as God - and second, that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.  If you do not believe that there is some merit in seeking Him, you won't do it.  If you truly believe He will respond to you, that He will allow Himself to be sought and known by you, nothing will hold you back from seeking Him and knowing Him.  If we would only see the surpassing value of knowing Him above all else, we would be at the beginning of abiding always in His presence, before His throne, face to face.  If we could only grasp that His greatest gift is Himself, we would count all else as rubbish, and we would gain Him (Philippians 3:8).

This is the beginning point of the "crucified life" whereby we die to the temporal and cling to the eternal.  By being conformed to His death, we know Him, and the power of His resurrection.  We die to righteousness that is of our own doing (derived from the law).in order to live in the righteousness that is from Him, based on faith.