To Encourage You

James 2:23 “Abraham believed God”

The Bible tells us that Abraham believed God.  Of course, like many people, Abraham believed there WAS a God. He also, again like many people, believed certain things ABOUT God.  But what set Abraham apart from the crowd, even the so-called “believing” crowd, was that he actually believed what God said. Abraham took God at His Word and his life demonstrated it. 

In the context of the verse above, Abraham believed God when God told him that he would have many descendants through his son Isaac. But then God told Abraham to offer Isaac on an altar of sacrifice. It would seem that if Abraham did what God said, the first promise would be negated. Yet Abraham believed God and obeyed Him, no matter what. 

Hebrews 11:17-19 gives us Abraham’s thought process regarding God’s promises concerning Isaac: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”   

It’s in this example we see the difference between believing in God and believing Him.  The Bible tells us that even the demons believe that God exists (James 2:19).  Obviously, the Bible is calling us to a belief that goes far beyond THAT.  It’s calling us, repeatedly, to believe what God has said, to trust that He’s telling us the truth, and to then act accordingly.  If we believe what God has said about the consequences of sin, we won’t delight in it, promote it, and encourage it, although so many in our world today say that we should. If we believe what God has said about eternity and the way to eternal life through His Son, we’ll accept and embrace what He’s told us and live a life of following Him. 

But to believe Him, we need to actually know what He has said.  Therefore, we’ll spend time in His Word to find out what that is. It’s in this way that we’ll be able to articulate what exactly it is that we believe Him about.    If we believe Him, we’ll believe what He has told us about our own need for Him and our lack of wisdom without Him. And so, we’ll listen closely to what He’s told us about how we are to think and act in our relationship to Him, others in our family, our neighbors, and even our enemies. Because He’s told us to not be anxious (Philippians 4:6-7), that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6), and that He’ll meet our every need (Philippians 4:19), we’ll not fret when tempted to do so – that is, if we actually believe what He has said. If we believe Him, we’ll believe He’s coming back someday to take us to heaven (John 14), and that to die is gain (Philippians 1:21). We’ll believe all this because He has said it, and so we’ll not fear the future, even if the future means we will be walking through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4).

So, do these things describe us?  Are we thinking, speaking, and acting as if we are really a person who, like Abraham, believed God?  Or are we no better than the demons, believing there IS a God, but then living as if there is not.