10/30/2025
Are we someone who prides ourselves on common sense and morality? Do we believe it to be a substitute for faith in God? Throughout our lives we have most certainly heard people say, “that man is a good person and he does good things.” about someone who is of good character and is morally sound. But is being a good and moral person enough to satisfy God? Is it enough to earn us eternal life?
“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6 ESV
God sees all that we do, and He doesn’t discount our efforts to be good or to behave morally. These things determine how we treat our neighbors, and although they don’t upset God, what pleases Him most is our faith in Him and Jesus Christ. God wants us to love Him and believe that He is the one true God, to believe He sent His Son Jesus Christ to redeem us from sin, and for us to worship and obey Him always and in everything.
Believing and having faith means that we hear those things that God asks us to do and obey them to their fullest... no matter how contrary to our own common sense they might appear. Take for instance the instructions of Jesus to the young ruler. Jesus told him to sell everything he owned, give it all away, and then come follow Him. What worldly common sense can be assigned to that? It seems outlandish and crazy; wouldn’t it make more sense to use that wealth and power for the advancement of the Lord’s kingdom?
However, Jesus wasn’t concerned with what this man owned, He was more interested in his having but one God before Him, and his undivided worship and faith in Him. God doesn’t want a moral and good man, no, that is only part of the equation, God wants a man who has great faith in Him. He wants the equation of spiritual life, and eternal life to be completed in Him alone… not through those things a man is able to do on his own. He wants us to solve a three part spiritual equation, He wants us to believe that Jesus Christ is His Son, to have an unwavering love and faith in God, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Morality and common sense are players in this but they are not how we solve this equation of eternity... they are simply byproducts.
“Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."”
John 14:6-7 ESV
“And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."”
Matthew 22:37-40 ESV
These are two scriptures that deal with the three parts of the equation of life and eternity. This is what we seek to solve, and quite often it doesn’t meet the criteria of what we would consider to be common sense; sometimes it even appears to be contrary to it because common sense is worldly sense.
One morning I listened as the founder of a charity called “Mercy Multiplied” spoke of sending some money in response to a burden that God had placed on her heart. She was leading a struggling young ministry for God and had a thousand dollars and some change in the bank when He asked her to send a person she had met by chance, and really didn’t know, a check for one thousand dollars... Friends, I am sorry, but if you are a person of common sense this just doesn’t make much sense at all! To break the bank of your newly formed ministry sounds rather crazy doesn’t it? But she obeyed the Lord and told her accountant to write the check, then she attached a letter to it that explained why she was sending it, and mailed the money. At that moment her mission was basically penniless, but something amazing happened. Something that occurs over and over again when we obey God and adhere to God Sense.
In the return mail she received a check back from this person for three thousand dollars… and the checks kept coming. Today that person donates $25,000 dollars a month to keep “Mercy Multiplied” going. God had asked her to do something that to any reasonable worldly person would appear unreasonable, and then God did what He is so good at... He made her common sense obsolete by introducing her to His God Sense. This is what happens when we seek, obey, and ultimately please God.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV
Sometimes it is money, and at other times it might be your time, your loyalty, or your love... and the list is nearly endless in what God might ask of us that on the surface goes against what we would consider common sense, but at its heart it makes perfect God Sense! God deals in faith, and if we meet Him there, then we will see Him at work both in us and through, us. We will receive the reward of our trust and belief by faithfully following God Sense. Doing those things that have no apparent earthly return, any guarantee of success, and that are often contrary to common sense simply because God has asked us to do them… well that is faith. This is how we please God, and we find that what He asks of us makes perfectly good God Sense!
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”
Hebrews 11:1-3 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for giving me good common sense, but most of all I thank you for teaching me how to exercise God Sense. Thank you for showing me that you operate in a way that is often contrary to the logic of the world yet has unending reward for your kingdom. Holy Father, help me in my unbelief and in those times when you ask me to step out in faith alone. Help me to do those things that I later see as great, and that ultimately I cry over as I recount in awe the magnificence of your God Sense in my prayer closet. I praise you Jesus for leading me to the Father and redeeming me of sin, and I thank you for teaching me to love my neighbor, but I praise you in tears for showing me the truth in faith, and the God Sense that took your death and turned it into life everlasting. Father you spoke all things into creation and your goodness is imbedded in everything you spoke. I thank you for the good in you, and the good in all you ask of us. I stand firm in my belief of those things you reveal to me, and in my faith when you ask me to trust in things unseen. Help me Father to overcome my worldly trust in common sense when you ask me to follow the good that is inherent in you and your God Sense. Strengthen my faith Lord to overcome what must be seen, for what requires only faith. Praised be your name Father! Praised be you for the grace, mercy, and God Sense you shower over me each and every day. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who leads me into your eternal presence by teaching me to worship you in Spirit and Truth and the power that I find when obeying what makes perfect sense in my life… your God Sense.
Amen!
Rich Forbes