All tagged believe
Prayer and the Word of God; they go hand in hand. In the Word we are taught so many things; things like how we were created, how to worship, how to live, how to pray, how to gain forgiveness through Jesus, and how to receive eternal life by believing. We are taught many lessons regarding physical life, and faith, but none is any more important than how to come before our Father God in prayer... It is His will for us.
Are we waiting to fully understand God before we will allow ourselves to believe? Do we hope he is who scripture says He is, but need more proof? Some of us don’t want to admit that God exists because our own limited intelligence, ability to conceive, or because our lack of understanding who He is, keeps getting in our way. Well, hope is fine, but it isn’t the same thing as faith. Hope is seeing a box, and wanting to believe that God might be in it. Faith is our ability to take the vapor of that hope, and treat it as if it were real. Faith is the first step towards believing… it opens the box in which we have placed our hope that God exists, and allows us to peer inside expectantly. Belief, on the other hand, is seeing the evidence of Him in the box, and realizing that He is not only there in its confines, but is in everything that surrounds it… and abides in us too. So today let’s think about where we are on this path from hope to faith, to belief, and into the eternal presence of God beyond.
My devotional reading by E.M. Bounds today was titled "Trouble Has No Power" and he said this about life's challenges: "Good and bad alike experience trouble. Trouble is no evidence whatsoever of divine displeasure." As Christians we have heard this many times and from a number of sources, and we know it to be true, but if we are not careful and seek God as we should we might find that the world’s troubles can distract us from our spiritual resolve. If we are not careful then we will allow the world to place itself between us and our prayer closet, and Satan will use our earthly troubles and circumstances in an attempt to encourage fear, and to discourage our deep abiding love and belief in God, and Jesus Christ. Satan has no power over us as believers that we can’t overcome by holding firm to God’s Word, and knowing that His Son Jesus has taken our sin from us, and conquered death. Is our relationship with the divine secure in our faith, and belief in Christ?
God performed miracles throughout the Bible, and He used various men of God and His Son Jesus to perform many of them, just as He uses men and women of faith to perform them today, but after the intense rush of faith, and the awe of that amazing moment has passed, what do we do the next day? Do we walk on, and simply let the fire of that moment die down, go to ash, and be forgotten, or is there more? Do we thank God in the moment, then recover the next day from the spiritual aftermath and hangover of it; that is left by the water that was turned to wine, or the words that God has spoken to us? Or is there “something” more?
Even before God gave His only begotten Son to redeem us, He created the mold that He would use to save us, and showed us just how much He would be willing to pay to accomplish this. We can read about it in Isaiah 43, and see that He gave not only Egypt to redeem the people of Israel, but he gave Ethiopia and Seba as well. Isn’t it incredible that our God valued Israel this much, and that today He considers us even more precious, and of greater value? Today we stand testament to God’s love for us. We have been redeemed by something far more valuable… we are saved by the life and blood of God’s own Son Jesus Christ.
Hearing the gospel of Jesus (that He was born, lived, suffered, died, and was resurrected to redeem us from sin and death), and having this message fall on that fertile spot within us, creates a need for it that is unquenchable. Are you one of those in whom the gospel of Jesus Christ has found a slight furrow into which its seed has fallen and taken root? If so then despite the season you are in, you will be called to tend it... time and time again, day after day, you will nurture it until it bears sweet fruit. For all the others there will be only darkness, and a withering drought.
The hardest question that any missionary faces isn’t “can I go out and do this?”, but rather “is Jesus able to do this through me?” It all boils down to faith, and it begins with the faith of the missionaries themselves. Going out and reciting scripture can be done by anyone, but believing belongs to the disciple, and what is a missionary if not first a disciple?
This morning let's consider the abandonment of things and people for Jesus. Is it a requirement of salvation, and if not, why do we abandon at all? So let's look at the things we give up along the way of faith and why we do so.
If our nation will once again return to God in a bold and powerful way, remorseful, repentant, and professing our love for Him, then He will circumcise our hearts so that we will be able to not only love him minimally, but with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength… even to our children. He does this so that we can love Him as His greatest commandment spoke of, and so that we might have eternal life.
Peter preached the gospel of Jesus to the Jews, and told them how they had crucified the Son of God. When they came to understand this as truth they were distraught, and asked what they could do to save themselves. Today we hear the same gospel, and find that we are just as lost to sin as they were. When we come to understand this truth we are equally distraught, but brothers and sisters, fear not, because the solution that Peter preached to the Jews in his day is still sufficient to save us today.
Today is Easter Sunday, and if you have never believed in eternal life, this is the day to rethink your position because today our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and we who were once lost, have been redeemed from our sins through Him. On this day all those who heard Him speak of the resurrection and of life that lay ahead for Him, and likewise for us, can finally see the truth in His words. In as much as His resurrection has been found to be true, then so is ours, and so are the other things He has spoken to us! This day is a joyous celebration of God’s love, grace, living water, and life everlasting! Do you believe?