Do You Truly Believe?

God doesn’t want your home, car, furniture, savings or any of your possessions. All he wants is your strong belief in his Word, and that may be the one thing that other, more spiritual-appearing people lack. You may look at another person as being more spiritual than you, but that person may actually be struggling hard to keep up an appearance of righteousness. As God looks at you, he declares, “There is a righteous man or woman.” Why? You’ve admitted your helplessness to become righteous, and you’ve trusted in the Lord to give you his righteousness.

The writer of Hebrews tells us we are accounted as righteous in God’s eyes only with one important qualification. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, NKJV). “Without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

You may claim, “I believe this. I have faith in the God who resurrected Jesus.” The real question for you is do you believe the Lord can resurrect your troubled marriage? Do you believe he can bring to life a spiritually dead relative? Do you believe he can raise you up out of the pit of a debilitating habit? Do you believe the Lord can erase your cursed past? Do you trust his promise “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25)?

When everything looks hopeless — when you are in an impossible situation, with no resources, and no hope before you — do you believe God will be your Jehovah Jirah, seeing to your need?

Do you believe he’s committed to keeping his promises to you, and that if even one of his words fails, the heavens would melt and the universe collapse? If we are struggling to have this faith, we must go to Christ like the man with the demon-tormented son. “Jesus said to him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:23-24).