“And immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I
believe. Help my unbelief.’”
Mark 9:24
Twenty-seven and a half years ago I believed in Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior.
Since then I have had countless opportunities to believe in His love for me despite my circumstances, to believe He had a plan in the middle of confusing trials, to believe He heard every prayer, to believe He understood me in my pain, to believe He was not finished with me even when it felt like He was.
For some funny reason, it’s always been easier for me to believe in God for the “big” things rather than the smaller ones.
I knew God would provide us a place to live; I knew God would provide a job for my husband; I knew God would bless my little son at Christmas when we couldn’t.
But, oh, those countless “little” things… When I’ve trusted in my eyes more than I’ve believed; when I’ve trusted in my understanding more than I’ve believed; when I’ve trusted in my own effort more than I’ve believed.
And I wonder how much I’ve missed out on, how many more blessings I would have had if I’d taken that same belief I had at salvation and applied it every, single time.
“Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. “
Genesis 15:6
God puts a lot of stock in belief.
It’s not about what we do, it’s not about who we are, it’s about Whom we believe.
And there is only One worthy of our belief.
If we are going to be followers of Christ, we will daily, consciously, make the decision to take the belief we had at the moment of our salvation, and believe Him for everything else.
Why would I ever believe that Christ died for the sins of a singular, unimportant, obscure little girl who lives 2000 years after His death and resurrection, called her by name, and then somehow think He forgot about her afterward?
He hasn’t, and He never will.
My belief in Him need not ever waiver.
He sees each and every one of us, and He is intimately acquainted with our comings and goings, with our every trial – big and small, with every tear, with every, single, solitary detail.
Nothing gets by Him.
The truth is, it’s a choice. Every day we have the choice to believe in Him – to believe He’s there right by our side, to believe He’s with our loved ones, to believe He wants the best for us, to believe He’s in our futures, to believe He’s bigger, much, much bigger, than our past mistakes.
While we can’t lose our salvations, unbelief is as much a sin after we’re saved than it is before.
The absence of belief in Christ for a particular situation will create a vacuum that’s usually filled with fear, and that can create a whole slew of messes in our wake.
Choosing belief in Christ or to be moved out of fear will determine the decisions we make and the roads we take.
I know it’s hard to keep believing sometimes when the trials seem out of control, when the world around us is a big, complicated mess.
But keep believing anyway.
I know when I’ve stood in belief in my prayers for a situation, God has answered. It’s when I waiver in my belief in prayer that He waits until I stand on faith in who God is – my Loving Savior – to answer me. He desires belief because it is the pathway to our righteousness.
God knows we’re all a work in progress, though, that the sanctification of our souls is not yet fully realized, that it is what we and the Lord are moving toward.
As with every sin, when we repent – when we turn around and do the righteous thing – in this case, choose to believe in Him, and ask God to help us with our unbelief, He will forgive us and set us back on the right path.
We then consciously walk on that path of belief, in full faith and trust in Him – in who He is, in His plans for us, in His love for us, in His grace and mercy that are continually poured out because of His goodness and faithfulness.
“Father, please help us when we are tempted to not believe in you. To not believe in all you say you are. To not believe in your love for us. To not believe in your plans for us. To give way to fear instead of believing in your holy perfection and your promises to us. Please help us choose belief over fear, self, the world, or anything else outside of you. May our constant belief in you be witnesses of your glory and power. In the Name of Yeshua Hamashiach, amen.”