What I believe

September 25, 2008 · Filed Under faith/believe · Comment 

I wish I could tell you that I was a pillar of faith. But I’m not. I struggle with faith just as much as the next person. Let me give you some examples of what I believe and things I struggle believing.

Here are some things I believe:

  • I believe God is passionately and madly in love with me.
  • I believe that through Christ, I am righteous and holy.
  • I believe that when I die, I’m headed straight to heaven.
  • I believe heaven is going to be awesome and wonderful!
  • I believe God is working around the clock to help me, strengthen me and encourage me.
  • I believe God desires for us to be healed and whole–body, soul and mind.
  • I believe that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of us.

Those are some of the things that I really believe, undoubtedly. I have no doubts about them. They are just facts to me. I don’t question them. I don’t struggle with believing them. They are truth to me.

But then there are things that I just struggle to believe. I know in my head they are true, but in my heart, there are doubts, like:

  • Can God really shape an election based on our prayers?
  • I’ve been praying for someone’s salvation for years. Is it helping?
  • I need healing. I believe in healing. But, why isn’t it happening yet?
  • I want to change in some areas, but I’m finding it so hard.
  • When finances are flowing, life is good. But when they start to ebb, so does my faith.
  • I need to stop drinking coffee, but I love the stuff. I doubt at times that God can help me stop drinking coffee.

Isn’t that amazing!?! I can believe that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of me, and at the same time, I doubt God can help me quit the coffee. That’s just messed up.

Satan knows that our faith is what activates the spiritual into the natural. He knows real faith makes a difference in our lives. Faith pleases God (Hebrews 11:6). God loves it when we believe, really believe. And Satan knows that. So, he’s number one target is our faith. His most powerful weapon is unbelief. If he can get us to doubt God, then he has won.

Think about it. Have you ever had any of these thoughts:

  • I’ve tried praying for this issue in my life, but nothing has changed. I guess God just wants me to live this way.
  • My mom died from cancer. My grandma died from cancer. I’m probably going to die from cancer.
  • This is just the way I am. I can’t change.
  • God is all powerful, and no matter what I pray for, he’ll do what he wants anyway.
  • I keep messing up, over and over. I guess God doesn’t want to help me.

Who do you think is the source of these thoughts? Where do they come from? They are not from God. The enemy has a vast number of resources to get us thinking this way. And, it’s wrong. While these thoughts may look like humble, Christian thoughts, all of them are rooted in unbelief.

God is passionately pursing us and fights hard for our faith. That’s what we need to believe!

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Faithless generation

September 22, 2008 · Filed Under faith/believe · Comment 

This is another one of those amazing stories about faith, about believing:

    When they arrived at the foot of the mountain, a huge crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, because he has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”

    Jesus replied, “You stubborn, faithless people! How long must I be with you until you believe? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.

    Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?” “You didn’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I assure you, even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible” (Matthew 17:14-20).

I find this story amazing because here the disciples had been with Jesus for quite awhile now, and they had seen the miracles, the power, the results of faith in Jesus. At this point, they had seen bread and fish multiplied (Matthew 14:19), they had seen Jesus (and Peter) walk on the water (Matthew 14:25), and they had seen numerous miracles. Surely, you would think they could believe by now. Maybe it wasn’t the disciples lack of faith as much as it was the people’s lack of faith. Jesus did rebuke them, “You stubborn, faithless people.”

Yet, it was when he was long with the disciples that he said, “You didn’t have enough faith.” So, it was their lack of faith as well. They didn’t believe. If they had just a mustard seed of faith, “nothing would be impossible.”

What seems impossible to you right now? An upcoming reorg at work? A struggling marriage? Rebellious kids? A serious sickness? What seems impossible to you, right now? Listen carefully to the words of Jesus, “If you have enough faith, nothing is impossible. If you believe, it is possible.“

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Do you believe?

September 17, 2008 · Filed Under faith/believe · Comment 

There is one area in my journey with God that has really changed how I pray and how I respond to God. Faith.

In the New Testament, the Greek word often translated as “faith” is pistis. Interestingly, the Greek word often translated as “believe” is pisteuo. The Greek words are the same, except one is a noun (pistis) and one is a verb (pisteuo), but it’s the same word.

In my journey, I have found faith/belief to be essential to the Christian walk. And conversely, I have found that our greatest enemy is not the devil, but our unbelief. He is defeated. His power and authority has been stripped away at the Cross. But, we must believe in order to reclaim our authority.

Ask yourself a simple question, “What do you really believe?” When you pray for peace, or strength, or victory over some bondage or fear, do you believe? I mean really believe?

We say we believe, but in all honesty, I’m not sure we do. We probably just hope. Read these scriptures and see how faith/belief empowers our prayers:

    Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I assure you that you can say to this mountain, ‘May God lift you up and throw you into the sea,’ and your command will be obeyed. All that’s required is that you really believe and do not doubt in your heart. Listen to me! You can pray for anything, and if you believe, you will have it” (Mark 11:22-24).

    “It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

We’ve got to believe. When we pray, beg and plead with God about something, and then don’t believe he will answer, we’re like a wave tossed about by the sea:

    “But when you ask [God], be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6, 7).

Look at your prayer life. When you pray, do you “really believe and not doubt in your heart”? Or, do you struggle with unbelief? Do you have thoughts like, “God won’t answer my prayers. I’m too much of a sinner. It hasn’t worked in the past. Why pray?”

Do you realize that unbelief limits the power of God to work in our lives? Check out one of the most amazing scriptures regarding faith:

    “Because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any mighty miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief” (Mark 6:5, 6b).

Did you catch that? “He couldn’t do any mighty miracles.” It’s not that he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. He was limited. His hands were tied. His power was limited. Why? They didn’t believe. And Jesus “was amazed at their unbelief.”

Over the next few weeks, I hope to share more in this area, including some of my experiences (and failures) regarding faith.

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