My wife Fiona has been looking for a specific kind of wall hanging for our front landing. She wants to hang the word Believe on the wall we see as we come and go through our front door (...and of course, she has a very specific style in mind that's made finding the right word Believe a bit of a challenge!).
The word believe can at times seem either ridiculous or inspiring, or both, depending on your circumstances. And from a Biblical perspective, it doesn't appear that God always wants to direct our lives in such a way that it's easy to believe. A good example of this is the very first place we see the word believe in the Bible. It says of Abraham in Genesis 15:6, "And he believed the Lord..." That phrase in that context flies in the face of all reason, of all biological realities, and of simple common sense. Picture it: Abraham and Sarah were very old and had no children, and God visits Abraham to tell him that his offspring will be as numerous as the stars! Abraham's response is what makes him the father of our faith: he believed God.
I don't know about you, but I don't find believing God in the face of extreme odds -- in the face of stiff opposition -- in the face of uncontrollable uncertainties -- in the face of great hindrances -- in the face of impossibilities easy. In fact, I often end up in unbelief when facing such circumstances. But not Abraham. He believed God when promised something that looked impossible. And even in the midst of his struggles to trust God, as details in the next couple chapters reveal (Genesis16:3-4 and 17:18), Abraham still chose to believe what God had promised him.
Believe. I want to get that through my head and into my heart. I'm a so-called "believer" on account of my belief in Jesus Christ as my Saviour, so can I be a believer in God's goodness and love as I walk with Jesus through hard times? Believe. That's what I want to do. "And I believed the Lord..." I want that to be said of me when people look at my life. By God's grace, I want to believe God's Word, God's love, God's promises, and God's prophetic words. I want to believe despite odds, despite obstacles, despite opposition, despite circumstances, despite delays, despite doctor's reports, despite popular opinion and despite myself.
May God help me to believe Him to be who He is and to do what only He can do. May God help me to believe Him for more than what my flesh would be quite ready to settle for. Because the God I know is truly worthy of such confidence.
© 2010 by Ken Peters
© 2010 by Ken Peters
2 comments:
"By faith we not only acknowledge that Christ suffered and rose from the dead on our account, but, accepting the offers which he makes of himself, we possess and enjoy him as our Savior. This deserves our careful attention.
Most people consider fellowship with Christ, and believing in Christ, to be the same thing;
but the fellowship which we have with Christ is the consequence of faith. In a word, faith is not a distant view, but a warm embrace, of Christ, by which he dwells in us, and we are filled with the Divine Spirit."
John Calvin
http://www.lectionarycentral.com/trinity16/CalCommEpistle.html
Man am i glad for that little "Next Blog" feature, or else i might not have stumbled through here.
i agree. Believing in the face of all the "stuff" life has to throw at us comes so very, very hard. But how sweet is the reward when we do?
God Bless!
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