It was four months ago this week since my husband had his
heart attack.Sometimes I can still feel the anxiety of waiting for the doctor to come out of the operating room and tell me he’s OK.
There are times I look at him and it’s hard to believe
there is anything wrong. Then all he has
to do is speak or try to do a task, and the reality sets in contradicting what we’re
believing for by faith. Times like this
are what bring me to question, “What do I
really believe?”
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Don't miss
out on this week's challenge (below).
He is, She is
I remember a conversation with my family about voting
when I was eighteen years old. The discussion
was over the presidential election. When
someone asked me which party I was going to pick I looked at my father and
asked him, “What are you?”
My decision was based on my Dad’s and nothing else. “He is so I am” was my mentality. Over the years that sometimes remained the
same, but not always. The difference was I researched what I believed to be the
best candidate with the information I learned, and then acted on that
belief. Finding things out for myself
has helped me remain faithful to what I believed regardless of what others
think, including the influences of friends or family.
The process of researching and learning to gain
knowledge, understanding or wisdom has been something I’ve done in all areas of
life, especially when it comes to “religion.”
Having a Christian mother as a Sunday School teacher allowed me to ask a
lot of questions, and I did. Some were
intriguing while others got me into trouble.
Growing up I was raised in a denominational church, but
the whole idea of it confused me. I
couldn’t understand why all “these” people who called themselves Christians
were always fighting. Some of the
biggest divisions came at church baseball games where the true colors of what
they believed came out in ungodly behavior.
This made it hard to believe God, because I based the Bible on people
and not Who wrote it.
Not until many years later did I learn that I had to
believe by faith what I was claiming I believed. Just to say you believe isn’t living in
belief. No longer could I talk the talk,
but had to walk the walk as well. The Bible
refers to it as “working out your own salvation,” meaning basically, you have
to experience it to believe it.
Entering this phase of my journey with God, I saw more
doors close as the Lord exposed me to other things I had rejected based on what
I “believed” to be true.
I had to
unlearn and relearn the Bible “facts” I thought I knew and grasp truth.
Truth
always changes facts,
but facts can never change the truth.
but facts can never change the truth.
As a young adult, my Christian life was mostly based on
my mother’s faith. Now I was living what
I believed, because it was made real to me when I actually had to trust God to
do what He promised in the Bible. To say
it mildly, I believed my belief … for real.
Forced Faith
When asked what we believe, people generally spout off something
based on a religious doctrine. We may
not like it when we’re questioned about what we say we believe, but in reality
until that faith is tested, we really don’t know if we believe at all.
My life turned around when I began to act on what I said
I believed in all those years. Since I
was the age of sixteen I have taught others how to be a disciple of Christ, yet
I was an observer not a student.
Tests and trials force us to act on what we believe by
faith. Either we’ll turn to the Lord and learn that His Word can be trusted, or
we’ll sink deeper into unbelief. The “believer’s
fence has two sides, and we can only be on one of them … belief or unbelief.
Application Required
In 2014 we took the entire year to learn how to seek the
Lord and His will for our lives. By
doing so we found out that believing God comes with benefits, such as unmerited
grace, mercy, blessings and favor through salvation by faith in Jesus
Christ. Over the next few months we’re
going to focus on believing what we
say we believe about God and His Word.
When doubt tries to creep into our thoughts, we’re going
to do what Jesus said to Jairus when he was told that his daughter had
died. The Lord looked at him squarely
and said, “Only Believe!”
“While He (Jesus) was still speaking (to the woman
with the issue of blood who was just healed), some came from the ruler of the
synagogue’s house who said, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher
(Jesus) any further?”
As soon as Jesus heard the word that was
spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue (Jairus), “Do not be afraid; only believe.” (Mark 5:35-36 NKJV)
The New Living Translations says it like this: “Don’t be
afraid. Just have faith.”
The Complete Jewish Bible reminds us in Whom we put our
faith.
“Ignoring what they had said, Yeshua (Jesus)
told the synagogue official, Don’t be afraid, just keep trusting.”
Would we be like Jairus if we were facing the same situation?
Jesus is still saying, “Only believe.” He hasn’t changed His mind on what He told
the first disciples. The message is the
same. We cannot look at the circumstances
that satan is throwing in our path, in order to trip us up on believing God at
His Word.
Yes, life is scary and sometimes it gets downright ugly,
but we are not to put our faith in things that change. Everything changes, except God … He changes not, scriptures declares.
We have to apply to our lives and each situation what we
have been given as children of the Most High God, and that is the gift of
truth. It’s what we base our faith on in
order to believe.
The facts that the doctors are giving us concerning my
husband’s condition change all the time, sometimes they change even during the
visit. God’s truth and promises change
life’s facts, so that is what we base our belief on by faith.
This Week’s
Challenge:
Only Believe God
To really believe by faith, we have to experience life
and make decisions based on what God says, and not rely on what people say or
do. We cannot judge others for their
decisions, because frankly we don’t know what we would do in a situation until
we travel that road for ourselves. So let’s travel our own road!
I’ve heard people say, “If God said it, I believe it and that settles it.” The truth is, it doesn’t matter if we believe
the Bible to be true or not. Our belief
doesn’t change God’s Word, His Word changes us.
If God said it, it’s settled as true whether or not we believe. Let’s choose to believe because God said it.
Let us pray for one another in “believing
our belief” based on truth over fact. Instead
of looking at facts, situations and circumstances, only believe what God said
in His Word.
God wants to do something new in your life if you ONLY BELIEVE.
Until
next time, favor comes through believing God.
“Don’t listen to that lie, only believe Me.”
Jesus Christ
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Scripture
reference was taken from the New King James Bible Version provide by Bible GatewayImage credit: Google Images or Dreamstime Creative Common License if not specified.
Image: Belief Believe Fact Truth What Do You Believe Where Faith
Disclaimer Notes: Results may vary due to lack of belief. Updated 10/19/18
