Mr Faith & Mrs Excellence

Faith and excellence are close buddies, but why? Simply because it takes faith to be excellent and excellence proves faith. It's a small variation on what James was so deliberate to point out when speaking about faith and works. The simply question when you are posed with a non-compulsory challenge is: why bother? If you don't believe that good is rewarded and that hard work is worth the effort, then you simply won't feel the need to bother stretching the extra yard. So that's an issue of faith then. Faith is believing in God's system of rewards. Likewise, if you have faith, what is it in? It must surely be in God's faithfulness, in His Word and in His promises, and the more you believe the system of blessing described in His Word, the more you will reach out to benefit from that system. Your reaching out is a demonstration that you've bought into His philosophy on life.