"ONLY those who are of faith"; with these words dies every works based attempt to find a path to peace with God. It excludes all efforts to supersede faith with human efforts or actions, all efforts to combine faith with works, all efforts to make our will or determination the key... in short, it says that if faith is not ALL you have, then what you have is NOTHING. This truth strikes at the beating heart of our sin. For what we desire above all things in the heart of our flesh is to be in control. We earnestly desire to be the commander of our destiny and the master of our soul... but beloved, this is such an empty longing! For we do not possess either the wisdom or the strength to do right by ourselves, and when we seek to wrest power from God, we not only fail, we damage everything that we touch. We must come to Him by faith alone for this is how God has determined to save us, and what is more, it is the very substance of the fabric of His grace unto us! It is of faith, because faith begins at the point of trust. I must trust the God in which I claim to have faith, or I do not have faith. Now, trusting Him implies that He is trustworthy, while refusing to trust screams that He is not… and dear ones, understand that God IS trustworthy and He will not honor any who try to bully their way to Him while denying one of His core attributes. We do ourselves no good at all to deny this, and in truth we do a tremendous amount of harm. It is better, safer and infinitely surer to simply trust the God who is and come to Him in the manner that honors that trust, for nothing else will ever convey you safe to His loving arms. Faith is the only identification of those who are beloved of God.