Devotions

When I searched my reference books and found ways to “cure” unbelief, none of them touched me. So I asked God for something simple, and he gave me two thoughts on how I can rid my heart of unbelief.

First, lay hold upon every worry, fear and burden. Take them all to Jesus and leave them on his shoulders. “Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7, NKJV). This is God’s personal invitation to you. “Put it all on me! Do not carry it one hour longer. I care about everything that is happening to you, and I am big enough to take it all for you.”

Aren’t you thankful that God is never overloaded? His shoulders can carry every care. He urges us to give it all to him. “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain you; he shall never permit the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22). Go down your list right now. “God, I give you all of these. Take this burden, that relationship, that problem.” Be fully convinced that he cares!

Second, launch out in full faith on the written word of God. Take up the Lord’s challenge to live by his word. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). You must be able to say, “I’m going to live and die by God’s word to me.”

How is it that we can trust God’s word for our eternal salvation but not for our daily needs and problems? We can believe him for the hardest part. Why is it harder for us to believe for help, guidance and power over sin? “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 1:24). God promised this to you, so let him take on the burden of keeping you.

Go to the Lord and challenge his Word. Tell him you are going to stake your life on it. Show him you trust his every word and be blessed!

“But 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, NKJV).

All the praying in the world will not help you unless you mix it with faith. You can fast and pray for days or weeks, but you will not please God without faith. Your efforts will profit you nothing unless your heart is anchored in faith.

“Let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6-7).

If you are praying fervently yet never believe God will answer you, you are embarrassing him. It may make you feel good or holy; but in reality, you are wasting time, wallowing in unbelief and doubt.

I know Christians who say they pray daily, often weeping before the Lord, yet nothing happens. They remain heavyhearted and depressed. Their lives are always in turmoil because they have come into God’s presence not fully persuaded that he will do what he promised.

Hear his assurances! “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:24). “And all things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” (Matthew 21:22).

Many of God’s people live like spiritual paupers because something happened that made them question God’s love. They say, “How can I trust God when I don’t understand why he would allow such a thing to happen to me?”

There is no human answer to their confusion. God knows the end from the beginning, and only when we are in heaven will we understand why some of these winds and waves have tossed us and why God allowed it all.

I believe all we need to know for now is this: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb?... Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15-16). God has given us his word. “You are my child. You are written in the palm of my hand, so trust me!”

“He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of his Son” (1 John 5:10, NKJV).

Consider all the ugly sins listed against Israel in the wilderness: complaining, idolatry, rebellion, sensuality and more. It’s a long list, yet none of these provoked God’s anger. It was their unbelief that angered God.

“And the Lord said to Moses: ‘How long will these people reject me? And how long will they not believe me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?’” (Numbers 14:11). God was saying, “These people make a lie out of everything I have done for them. When will they ever trust and rest in me?”

For thirty-eight long years Israel forgot God’s word and dismissed his miracles. Finally, because they kept falling back into murmuring and unbelief, God said, “I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them” (Numbers 14:12). He told Moses, “I am giving up on my people because they won’t trust me.”

When Israel was on the victorious side of Jordan, Moses solemnly declared, “Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it... Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. The Lord your God, who goes before you, he will fight for you... Yet, for all that, you did not believe the Lord your God...And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and took an oath, saying, ‘Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers’” (Deuteronomy 1:21, 29-30, 32, 34-35).

Think about all the things God has done for you: He has kept you, answered prayers, met you in crises, brought you through trials, taken care of you in ways that are nothing short of miraculous. Nevertheless, we worry and fret because we don’t see him immediately do what we think he should do for us.

When God’s Word does not anchor our souls, when we hear wonderful promises then act as if we have been abandoned, we make God out to be a liar. When we live in unbelief, we rob ourselves of his blessings and favor.

Mark 2 and John 5 give the accounts of two invalid men. They had a lot in common. Both were paralyzed and unable to get around on their own; both, in their helpless states, encountered Jesus unexpectedly. Both were healed.

The difference is how the two men ended up meeting Jesus. In John 5:1-15, we see a man surrounded by people, yet he was alone. He’d given up hope. He lay on his makeshift bed in the colonnades of the Sheep Gate by the pool year after year, despairing. He had no one, he said, to help him into the healing waters. When Jesus and the crowds trailing after him came into the neighborhood, the paralyzed man couldn’t get anywhere near them.

The paralytic in Mark 2:1-2 needed Jesus’ healing touch too, but he was more fortunate. He had friends. Word had gotten out that Jesus was back home, and the crowds filled the house to hear him speak. “There was no more room, not even at the door” (Mark 2:2, ESV). “No problem!” say the man’s  friends. “We’ll get you to Jesus.”

Jesus, of course, knows where we are. Still, there are times when he’s watching those around us to see if they will step up and help. In Mark 2, he’s not only ministering to the sick man, but he’s also testing his friends. I’m imagining the moment the paralyzed man came through the roof in front of Jesus. What friendship! The men who climbed on that roof were invested in the outcome; they were part of the miracle. Everyone there was affected, not only by Jesus’s healing the man and forgiving his sins but also by the persistence, loyalty and faith of the man’s friends.

The Lord sought out the man at the pool because he knew no one would ever help him. Time and again in his ministry Jesus did this, seeing a gaping hole in people’s lives where there should have been love and friendship and support. It is why he drew bystanders into his miracles. He wanted them to understand the power of sacrificial love, that their efforts would be part of the miracle.

“Bear one another’s burdens,” said Paul, “and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Whether it’s small or big, a temporary fix or a long-term care commitment, each act of love and service is vital to the kingdom of God.

Jesus told the religious leaders of his day, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40, NKJV).

I remember clearly that I once said aloud in the supermarket, “I hate people!” People were what caused me to feel insecure and run out of classrooms when they turned their attention to me. I believed that people put unrealistic demands on me. That’s why I used to retreat to my mom and dad’s cottage on a lake in the Canadian wilderness and be completely alone and completely at peace. I didn’t need or want anyone around. The way I saw it, people were the problem. People were a source of pain to me.

That’s why it is so amazing that God turned me around 180 degrees. Now people are a great joy to me, and the only pain I feel when it comes to people is that they might not get to heaven. To me the whole journey has been made worthwhile by this, and it’s not a feigned thing. I never learned how to fake love in a convincing way. I pray with six or seven guys from the church every morning, and each time we close off, I say, “I love you.” And I mean it.

Loving others is not possible in a human sense. The Lord taught me that it is about loving what he is doing in my life and others. It’s about seeing myself and others in the light of Jesus Christ. When we start looking at people this way, we have a new perspective.

I have seen the witness of Christ in many ways over my lifetime. I’ve seen miracles, particularly overseas. I’ve seen tens of thousands come to Christ in one moment. I’ve seen genocide stopped. I’ve seen great sweeps of God’s almighty hand.

“But what’s the greatest miracle of them all?” you might ask.

“That I love people,” I would be compelled to answer.

The fact that I can genuinely express love now is an open door that I walked through and for which I am eternally grateful.

_{Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. In May of 2020 he transitioned into a continuing role as General Overseer of Times Square Church, Inc.}