believe God

Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ²⁴But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” Luke 5:23-24

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1

I recently read about the Free Grace movement which started around the late 1980s. Their basic belief is that you need only to say you believe in Jesus to receive eternal life in the Kingdom of God. No repentance necessary. No change in your ways. You don’t even need to say you “follow” Jesus.

While you can find places in the New Testament where people received salvation from Jesus for believing, one has to ask in the modern world the question of what does “believing” mean?

Your definition of “believing” is important because if you believe Jesus was just a guy who lived a long time ago or a prophet who did some miracles then you won’t believe He forgives our sins and with compassion blots out our transgressions. You might think Jesus had some good life advice that may or may not apply to you. It certainly doesn’t lead you to get on your knees in submission and praise.

If you believe He is God but don’t seek through the Holy Spirit a repentant, changed life then you might find yourself facing a Jesus who says to you: “You say Lord, Lord but I didn’t know you.”

Easy “believism” doesn’t lead to a life of divine-given fruit through our act of acknowledging our sin nature. People Jesus encountered throughout His time here and believed were always told to go and do something. Sin no more, tell someone, worship differently, give up something.

The Lord Jesus wants not just our words, He wants all of us. He expects believers to see Him as the God who reigns over every single aspect of our lives. He wants the repentant not the unrepentant in His Kingdom. And it’s only Him that can forgive and transform. It’s that Jesus that causes us to be thankful, grateful for removing the scales from our eyes so we can see Him clearly.

And for that we should give Him all praise because in the end that’s truly the only thing we can offer back to the God of the Universe.

Click here to listen to today’s song: All My Praise

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Matthew 6:26-27

By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; Psalm 65:5

There’s been a few times in my 36 years of marriage when we experienced serious financial loss. The first time it was devastating. I felt lost and unsure of our future. It was hard not blaming and feeling angry. I wasn’t a woman of faith at the time so I turned inward to chastise myself over and over and then outward condemning anyone associated with the loss. I dwelt over it, turning the situation around in my head during endless, sleepless nights. Each time I drove past the business project in which we had invested the scab was re-opened and for days I would feel those same feelings all over again.

Fast forward many years when my husband’s business and another investment came under dramatic assault due to Covid restrictions and fear. We saw all that we had built potentially crumbling beneath us. This loss was potentially greater, effecting our retirement and even our home. This time, however was different.

I frequently found myself at peace. Sure, I’d get scared. I’d worry about the stress my husband was under. This time I had someone to tell me there was a purpose to the plan. To tell me He would give us the manna and the honey because He is the Lord who provides.

We have two choices to make when difficulties attack our lives. We can turn to our emotions and fears or we can turn to Jesus. When we allow our fears to take over, we get angry, we blame, we get depressed. For people like me I wear myself out alternately beating myself up (you shouldn’t have taken that vacation last year! That money could help us now!) or obsessing over how to fix an unfixable problem. For some they withdraw from the world all together feeling hopeless.

When I finally learned, and most of all believed, that God is who we turn to satisfy and squash our fears I experienced freedom. He is a miracle worker. He can bring water from a stone. Turn water into wine. No matter what we face in the coming years we need to remember to seek God for all we need. Pray, praise and trust then repeat.

I’m having some issues with the webpage provider correctly linking the songs from the button below. So try clicking here: Honey In The Rock.

Tag: believe God

Day 23 All My Praise

Day 8 Honey In The Rock