To Encourage You

Philippians 3:6 “As for zeal persecuting the church.”

How sure are you of the things you believe?  Are you absolutely convinced that you are correct in how you view the world around you, God (or that there is no God), death, and eternity?  What are your opinions based on?  Is the foundation of your viewpoints about such things solid or is it a house of cards?

The apostle Paul – before he met Christ – was absolutely convinced that he was right about such things.  He was zealous – which means fired up, convicted, rock-solid and unwavering – but he was very, very wrong.  He was as blind as a bat about spiritual things even though he viewed himself as an all-knowing spiritual leader. 

The Bible tells us that “there is a way that seems right to a man but in the end, it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12).  The Bible tells us that we can be so convinced that we are right about such all-important things like what happens to us after we die that we won’t even be convinced otherwise (when like Paul we are very wrong) even if someone were to come back from the dead and tell us (Luke 16:31). That’s pretty bad, isn’t it?! 

So, what hope does anyone have of knowing the truth?  The Bible tells us that it is simply a gracious gift from God (Ephesians 2:8).   And it says, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).  It is only as the Spirit of God opens the eyes of one’s heart to the truth of the Bible that light shines on the heart of anyone. 

My prayer, and the prayer of every true Christian is that God would open the eyes of those who are not yet convinced that the truth about all of life is found only in Christ and not in one’s own ideas, wherever those ideas might have come from.