Do you really believe what you believe? Pause and think about this for a couple of seconds. A simple statement on the surface, but the depth of it is far more. Any and everything in the Bible is God breathed. The words were not made up. The stories are real, and yet, have you found yourself really believing the true words of God as put forth in His Word?
It’s one thing to say you believe in everything the Bible teaches, but do you really? The Bible teaches of grace, mercy, righteousness, and salvation, as a few main points, but do you actually believe these concepts? I’m not sure we all do. It takes great faith to address these doubts to really believe the concepts.
In a Bible study once, we were discussing the forgiveness offered to all believers through Christ. We talked of minor things that occur and then delved into deeper conversation about more abhorrent sins, like murder. One of the attendees stated He could never see how there would be forgiveness for a murder, child molester, or rapists. He didn’t believe God would forgive people like this.
Maybe you are one of those. Maybe you know someone or where a victim of a crime yourself. What do you think? Do you really believe that forgiveness, even for these type of people, is available through Christ? Even after explaining in depth with this fellow how even the Apostle Paul was a spear in the fight against Christians, he was forgiven and became a champion of the faith, our friend’s opinion wouldn’t change. Are you like our friend?
Let’s get a little deeper. What about the strength of God in your life? When we pray “…your kingdom come, you will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-13). Do we really believe this? We hear of people stating they have stumbling blocks in their walk with Christ, or strongholds they can’t seem to shake, but really, the Bible says all things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26). If you really believed that all things are possible with God, why do you still have strongholds in your life?
Whatever “it” is, we make excuses to explain away the continuing sin occurring in our lives. Now, if we really believe that God created everything (Genesis 1:1) is our strength (Ephesians 6:10) and is the power in our lives (Ephesians 3:20), then what is our excuse? We don’t want to admit we are weak. We don’t want to face our sins fully. If we did, we would stop whatever sin we are committing because we really believe what we believe God can do for us.
You may disagree but I believe there is a part of each one of lacks the whole faith of God in our lives. Disagree? Let’s look at finances. Letting God help our marriages, and guidance of kids is easy to do. Shoot, we have no problem lifting our problems for God to handle. We want Him to lead us to where He wants us to use our gifts and to help people, but when it comes to money…hmmm… well, uh, hmmm, maybe not so much.
Finances is the “it” for a great majority of folks. God will not harm us (Jerimiah 29:11) and He will guide us (Galatians0. 5:16) but when it comes to the penny we have in our pocket, this is different. If the Holy Spirit, given to us through Jesus, impressed on you to give that tax return to the church youth group, would you? Or would you talk yourself out of it?
One year, I gave a challenge to everyone in the church. To give their tax return to a part of a church ministry that the church was active in. You know how many did? Other than my family, no one. It impressed upon me that people want their money for themselves. Sure, we will use our tax return to buy that big screen TV or go on that vacation, but what do we do with the money God made us stewards of? I don’t know about everyone. I know what I saw in a congregation and it was troubling.
Ok, what if the Holy Spirit impressed upon you to quit that job for a significantly lower paying job? Sure, it’s easy to ask God for a better paying job with promises to give the extra to Him (though we don’t, we buy more stuff). Yet, if it was impressed to us to take a step down into a lower tax bracket, would you? Probably not. It is hard, I’ve been there. There is a lack of trust in God to take care of us when money is involved.
It was mid-2007 when the Holy Spirit impressed upon me very clearly to leave my career behind in the Army. I fought and fought and the voice in my heart got louder and louder. I could have fought it and silenced the voice of the Holy Spirit, but I decided to step out in great faith and listen.
Long story short, there was a reason and it came to fruition years later. It was hard to trust my life, my family’s life, and my finances to God when I didn’t even have a job lined up. He took care of us and it all worked out for the better. Was it hard, oh yes. Was it trying, yes very much so, but I would just remind myself that God told me to do this and He wouldn’t abandon me or set me up for failure.
I’m facing a similar situation again and it is so much easier now to let Him guide me in this because I have experienced His care for me in the past. Do I have my doubts? Yes. At times when I let my mind wander to the “what if’s,” but then I just think back to 2007 to remind myself that yes, God knows what He is doing better than what I know I’m doing. God has a bird’s eye view of my life while I can barely see the end of my nose.
When it comes down to it, we have issues of trust. We trust our seatbelts and airbags to keep us safe in our cars, but all in all, we seem to lack complete trust in God. We want to trust in Him because we believe in Him and His words, but there is still a small tiny piece of us that can’t hand it ALL over to Him because we don’t really believe what we believe.
When you find yourself in a situation or a mindset of disbelief, remember that God will not forsake us (Psalm 9:10). Trust that He will care for you and help you to really believe what you believe.