Believe

The evidence has been presented.⁶ Before you, on one side, stands the boastful and appealing resources of this age found in riches and what we see and touch. On the other side, confident and unassuming, stands God. King David wrote in Psalm 40, “If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them.”⁷ Do we feel the same way? As we look over our lives, are we willing to admit the obvious? People fail us, health diminishes, investments go up and down with the market, but God has been to us a solid rock through our years. If we choose to consider the evidence, if we search it out sincerely with his help, we will find One worthy of our belief, and becoming convinced, we will believe.

One strong antidote to fear is belief; but not belief in itself. Even the world embraces the idea of faith or belief — George Michael sang, “I gotta have faith”.⁸ But objectless belief is powerless belief. It is the object, the who, of our belief that drives our fears away, not belief in our belief or dependency upon a strong emotional gumption. When Jesus spoke the words in today’s scripture, he was saying in essence, “Only believe — believe in what I am telling you right now, believe in me.” Jesus is the one who calms the storm and silences our fears; and so we believe in him. His presence (felt or not) is a surrounding safety. Behind what we see, our situation or circumstance, is the Rock of Ages. He is the one you can believe in.

“Make us willing to receive the supply of our need from thy bounty.”⁹ This line from a Puritan prayer echoes our need for a receptive heart. Part of having a believing heart is having a receiving heart. Life experience may tell us to open our doors, emails, texts, and hearts with caution; but with the Lord we need not have any such caution. The people of a certain town were waiting for Jesus and when they saw him, they received him gladly.¹⁰ May we wait with hope as well. Hope in what? Well, like the noble Bereans, we’ll find this hope as we search the Scriptures and find the truth that is contained on their pages — the promises, the faithfulness of God, the stories of his love. And in our searching, may our hearts inflate with a joyful receptiveness that causes belief to burst forth.

We have believed in Jesus. What is it that we have entrusted to this One we have believed in? We may put our health in the hands of a doctor, or rest our financial future on the advice of a financial advisor. We entrust what we value to someone because we believe they are able to care for or nurture it. Maybe a better question to ask would be, what is it that we have not entrusted to Jesus? He guards well that which we entrust to him. To the one who restored and forgave Peter, you can entrust your failures. To the one who raised Lazarus, you can entrust your greatest fears. To the one who rose from the dead, you can entrust your eternal soul. Like Paul, we can say, “I know whom I have believed,” and entrust all to him.

The evidence has been presented, and the question is being asked, “Who do you say I am?”¹¹ The word of God is living; it is active, made alive to receptive and believing hearts by the Holy Spirit with the power to transform. At the foundation of our beliefs is the cornerstone of what we believe about who Jesus is. No one else in the history of man on earth has claimed to be who Jesus claimed to be and done what Jesus did. Your life adds to the stories, to the accounts of the Son of God transforming, restoring, and raising the lives of men and women. You are part of the evidence presented that others may believe.