Believe is a word that many people like to ridicule as being an act of wishful thinking. These same people also express their ignorance when it comes to faith. For both faith and believe are words that have definitive meanings that relate to everybody and are very much a part of our lives, irrespective of who we might believe we are or who we might put our faith in.
People believe what politicians say is mostly false and yet they cast their vote for the one in which they have the most faith. You have to admit, something seems not quite right when voters put their faith in people whom they know are probably liars.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary provides the following definition for the word believe:
to have confidence in the truth, existence, reliability, or value of something.
Either the word believe means that we can have confidence in someone to tell us the truth or we do not really know what we mean when using the word—unless, of course, we have a different definition for the word.
When it comes to faith, Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary provides the following definition:
confidence or trust in a person or thing.
Essentially, we have meanings that are very much the same, for to believe in something and to have faith in something, according the two dictionary definitions, are expressed as to have confidence in something (or someone).
The Bible teaches us that if we believe Moses, we would believe the words of Jesus (John 5:46)
- Jesus said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead. (Luke 16:31)
Moses and the prophets testified that the Ten Commandments define what is required of relationships between humans, and what is required to have a relationship with God.
Whether a person believes (accepts as true) that relationships are important, depends on the individual. Liars care not what they say or to whomever they lie, or, even, how often they lie, or whatever the occasion may be whenever they lie, they only think of themselves, not the other person(s) to whom they are lying. Relationships are only important to liars when they can extract some benefit for themselves—even if it just a matter of the appearance of oneupmanship.
When we believe that we are being told the truth, eventually we go to the next step and exercise faith. Faith is the action that a person does when something has been believed to be true. If the person has been told a lie, then the person will be deceived. However, if the person desires the truth, the lie will be revealed (eventually, that is, if not immediately). Unlike the dictionary definition, the Bible tells us that faith is active, not just static, like merely accepting the truth of something and not taking any action when we believe something to be true.
- Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, and the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God. (James 2:21-23)
Abraham believed that God would provide a lamb for a sacrifice when he was told by God to offer up his son to Him. The reason being, Abraham’s wife Sarah—with whom he had a relationship—even though she was barren (Genesis 11:30 Genesis 16:2), miraculously gave birth to a child, when past the age of menopause.
- And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her; I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
You ask how can you believe in God again, which means that you once believed. The questions that really need asking:
- Why did you stop believing in a Creator of the Universe?
- Why did you stop believing in a Judge, who will call everyone into account for how they have wronged other people in some way?
- Why do you cast away the hope that made sense of being born to die and providing a sound rationale for existing in this present world?
- What was it that caused you to no longer believe that justice is real?
- What caused you to believe that God could not relate to you?
I know God can relate to people, because I have met many who have an authentic relationship with Lord Jesus Christ, as I myself have. There are those who do not know Lord Jesus Christ; although, they believe that God exists, because they recognize that it is impossible for the Universe to have come about by chance.
We all have two options: either we believe the Universe came about by some unpredictable element that is unknown and is really luck because it has no assignable cause, or we believe that the Universe was created by a Creator with a purpose in mind. Just because we ignorant mortals, who know very little, do not understand everything an omniscient individual would know, this does not mean we cannot call out to the Creator and not be heard. We can!
First, we have to accept that God is true. Second, upon accepting that God is true, we have to exercise faith and act upon the fact that if a reason for life exists, there is a reason for our personal existence.
- And without faith it is impossible to please [God]. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
We discover our reason for being when we discover our Creator, our Heavenly Father.
No comments:
Post a Comment