Do You Believe?

“Christianity is not built on feelings, culture, or personal opinions. It is built on the unchanging, authoritative Word of God. When Scripture speaks, our job is not to edit it, soften it, or explain it away—but to believe it, submit to it, and live by it.”-Voddie Bauchum

Some people view belief as acknowledgement of Christ. They bandy about words like “just believe, just believe,” but really mean “acknowledge Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and you can continue on as you are.” They cherry pick Scriptures, and emotionally manipulate people, making them comfortable in their relationship with Jesus, but there’s no real substance or change! Loved ones, mere acknowledgement of Jesus is not belief! Even the demons called Jesus the Son of God before he cast them out! They fully believe in Jesus, and yet are in rebellion against Him!

I say that because so many of us are in the Church singing about freedom in Christ, and yet we are slaves to our fears. We watch the news, and allow politicians, pundits, and even preachers to play on our fears. We argue with Scriptures and let the world manipulate our emotions, and it guides us as it will! We are buying in to fear, and we are anxious, angry, frightened, and worried all the time! This is not the peace of God! The peace of God comes only as we surrender to His will, trust Him, and seek His authority over our lives.Abraham, who is the prime example of belief, believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. What does this mean? Simply put: it means that God spoke, and Abraham trusted, and Abraham obeyed. This is the example we are to follow: to trust the Word of God, and act upon it, trusting that God will do what he promised, and not letting fear, doubt and worry cloud our minds. So, looking at Abraham’s example, I ask this: do you believe? Do you hear the Word of God and obey, or do you argue? Do you live at peace with God, trusting Him with all outcomes, or do you fight tooth and nail for your way? Stop letting yourself be controlled and swayed through your emotions! Let the peace of God guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus! The world will grow darker, wilder, and more chaotic, but God is immovable and forever unchanging! Cling to Him!

James 2:14-26

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Ephesians 4

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,

and he gave gifts to men.”

 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.