Do You Believe Him?

Every day and often in every moment of the day, there is a simple question that I answer.

Do you believe Him?

I had a conversation with my brother. We were talking about the differences between an atheist, one who rejects God and the godless. There are a lot of people who claim to believe in the existence of God or a higher power. That belief, however, does not translate into anything substantial or tangible that makes a difference to fundamental ways in which the individual lives. As we conversed and reflected, we even acknowledged that there are those who make a claim to be religious – our shared heritage is a Christian one – yet live as though they either reject God or are as good as godless, using the cloak of religiosity to mask their self-centred behaviour.

Easy though it can be to criticise these types of people, matters get closer to home when it comes to that daily question that I answer. The Bible outlines the relationship God established with His people – a covenant relationship where God committed Himself to a man, then his offspring, then establishing them as a nation. The premise of that relationship between God and His people was their acknowledgement of Him – not just in a ritualistic way, but in a deeply relational way that affected all of their lives. Such was His relationship with them, that they were to shape their lives around the question of if they believed Him. If they believed then they would do what He says. If they believed they would trust Him and place that rust in Him alone.

The Bible displays, however, how woeful the people were in maintaining that relationship. Time after time, people would say they believed with their lips, but turn and behave as though they didn’t in their actions. Then sometimes they just blatantly acted in rebellion against Him, doing their own thing and in essence rejecting Him. These actions always tended to end badly for the people.

A writer in the New Testament was led to put together the book referred to as Hebrews to inform an audience of that track record of faithlessness. This was a sober reminder for them not to follow those examples, but to see a pattern of faith and how worthwhile it is to maintain and persevere in faith in the fulfilment of all that God had promised in Jesus Christ. The challenge is not to say if I believe Him, but whether that belief is reflected in the actions I take, the words I speak and what goes on inside that motivates the words and acts.

Recently I noticed how I failed. That was very tough to take because I thought I believed, but I really was avoiding some hard truths. Not that I turned my back on Jesus and wanted to forget the whole deal. Just that there was an area of my life in which I did not believe expressed in the things I did.

Gracious and merciful in character, God did not reveal this for me to beat myself up or go into a slough of despair. It was about correction and repentance necessary to comply with the claim of belief. Correction and repentance are important parts of the walk of faith. Until we are perfect in every way, there will be areas in which we need to be corrected and then repent.

I am grateful for the grace and mercy on hand to receive the correction and conduct the repentance. That helps me further with that question that I face every day. My heart’s desire in doing that is to reinforce the relationship I have with God and to be an example to those close to me that I am not godless or one who rejects God. I am one who knows God and longs to know Him more and want Him to be known by others.

What about you? Do you believe Him?

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden