By: John Mitchell
There is an old saying that has a lot of truth to it. “If you believe in something, you are doing it. If you are not doing it, you don’t believe in it.” To believe in something, means that, in faith, we trust and accept it to be the truth. We can say that we believe all of the bible scriptures to be true, and that they tell us the best way for us to live, and that God is always first in our life. But if we are not living our life in obedience to the scriptures tell us to live our life, then we don’t believe what we saying that we believe. When we do truly believe, in faith, that the bible scriptures are the inspired and true words of God to us, then we have the confidence, in our heart, to trust and obey God. Then we can truly believe in our heart, that God’s will for us, is what is best for us. And then we can stop, wrongly believing, that our will is best for us, and start believing the truth, that God’s will, is what is best for us. If you are not there yet, where you fully believe in your heart that God’s will is what is best for you, don’t be discouraged. As long as you are searching for the truth, and you keep praying, reading and studying the bible, you will have that belief from your heart. What a relief it is from the pressures and stresses of life, that we have endured in the past, trying to get our carnal will and ways done, every day. To be able to pray for God’s will to be done for us, and believe it is what is best for us, is wonderful. No more stressing out, about how am I going to get my way done in this, wrongly thinking that my way is best. Proverbs 3:5-7 tells us to, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and depart from evil. We get into a lot of trouble when we start to trust in our own human reasoning above the wisdom of God. Some people say God can be in charge of most of their life, but they want to continue to be in charge of a small part of their life, because they believe that they know what is best for them, in that small part of their life. That would be putting ourselves on an equal level with God. God will not share first place in our life with us. God is the Lord of all of our life, or none of it. If we don’t submit all of our life to the will of God for us, then we are on our own without any of God’s help. As long as we have any doubt in our heart about God’s will for us being what is best for us, then we are leaving the door open, for us to go back to our old sinful ways. That is being double minded. James 1:8, says that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. We have to close the door behind us, by not returning to any of our old carnal sinful ways. We cannot be pleasing to God if we are holding on to any part of our life, for our will to be done in it, and not God’s will. A person cannot fully submit to God’s will for their life, if they think they know better than God, what is best for them, about any part of their life. I used to wrongly think that a strong fervent prayer was to select a scripture, out of context, that answered a person’s needs, like 3rd John 2. “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” Then I would pray to God, saying to God that His word in 3rd John 2 says that it is His will that we all be healthy and prosperous, and I’m believing, in faith, that He is going to bless the person I am praying for, with wealth and health. Then later, I started thinking, shouldn’t the apostles who were personally the closest to Jesus, all be healthy and wealthy? They were poor, persecuted, and killed for believing in Jesus, and the gospel of Jesus. Believing in false doctrine leads us away from God and away from salvation. False doctrine won’t save you. A strong prayer is to believe in and accept God’s will for us, even if we don’t like it, or agree with it. In Romans 10:1-4 Paul wrote, “Brethren my heart’s desire and prayed to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteous, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” As we walk forward, in obedience to God, and in submission to His righteousness, we need to remember, Philippians 1:6, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” And Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” We need to believe that whatever God has planned for us, it can be accomplished through us, if we will daily follow and obey God’s will for us. Each day that we walk the walk of following and obeying God, He is preparing us for whatever awaits us in our future. In Mark 9:23 Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” It’s amassing how much a person can accomplish, when he believes that, with God’s help, he can accomplish it. It’s disappointing how little a person accomplishes when he doubts that he can accomplish any more than just a little bit. There is a story about a collage math student who fell asleep in class. He woke up and copied the two math problems on the black board. After the holiday vacation was over, he told the math teacher that he tried and tried to solve the two math problems, but he could only solve one of them. The teacher said they are the two unsolvable problem math problems, not homework. The student received a national award for solving one of the unsolvable math problems. He solved it because he believed he could solve it. Everyone else believed it could not be solved. What we truly believe in our heart, is so important! What we believe either leads us toward God, or away from God. What we believe spiritually, can result in life or death for us spiritually, and heaven or hell for us eternally.