Do you have faith in your beliefs?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
(Hebrews 11:6 (NIV))

Do you have enough faith to believe?

Do you have enough belief to have faith?

Belief comes in many levels. You can believe that God exists. Belief can stop there. You can believe that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Belief can stop there. You can believe that He loves us. Belief can stop there. You can believe that He wants to redeem us. Again, belief can stop there. You can believe that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross to save us from our sins.

Belief can stop there!

What else is there?

There is the belief that Jesus arose on the third day. There is the belief that Jesus now sits at the right hand of God, the Father.

There is the belief that Jesus is your personal Lord and Savior.

There is the faith to proclaim this belief with every once that is you. There is the faith to call upon the name of Jesus in any situation. There is the faith that He will redeem you in spite of your sins.

I don’t know if you saw this, but belief leads to faith. I honestly do not think that it is possible to have faith without believing the truths behind that faith. Belief and faith go hand in hand, but, think about this concept for a moment. Can belief exist without faith? You can believe that God is good, but if you don’t have the faith to live up to that belief, what do you have? Can faith exist without belief? You can have faith that God is good, and then every action that you take will reflect that.

I honestly think that you can believe without having faith. Just take a look at all of the people who say that they believe in God, yet, never act it out. They don’t have the faith to take a stand for what the profess to believe in.

Do you believe?

Do you have faith in your beliefs?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Have you overcome your pride?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
(Mark 16:16 (NIV))

People say that it takes faith to believe in Jesus. I agree.

But I think it also takes faith to not believe in Jesus. It is a misguided faith, but it is a strong faith, none the less.

Think about that for a moment. Those who do not believe are saying that they are placing their future in the concept that God does not exist, or that Jesus is not who the Bible says that He is, or that there are multiple ways to get to heaven. No matter what their reason for not believing, they are willing to place the outcome of their eternity in their belief that they will not suffer the consequences of their sins. To me, that takes a very strong faith

I have heard it said that those who cling to religion are weak. That may be true, but I have also known some very weak-minded individuals who cling to other things, such as money, power and fame. These individuals try to fill their lives with something that will give them meaning. They are simply placing their faith in the wrong place. Often, they are placing it in themselves. Again, their faith is strong, but it is misguided.

If someone possesses that strong a faith, can you imagine once that faith is correctly placed, just how strong of a witness that they can be for God? Every single believer was once a nonbeliever. Every single believer has had an experience that made them see things as they really are. They had something happen to them that changed their priorities. At one point, every single believer was condemned, not by God but by their own sinful actions. It took a realization that we are not perfect. It took a realization that we can never be perfect. It took a personal realization that God’s grace is for me.

Think about that. God does not condemn, but we condemn ourselves when we chose to ignore His offer of grace and mercy. It is not unlike a drowning man refusing to be helped out of the water. God is offering that help to everyone.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
(Romans 3:23 (NIV))

In order to accept God’s grace, we must have the strength to admit that we are a sinner. Grace is freely given, but it has a price. Jesus paid the price and we must also pay a price. We must come to the realization that we need salvation. We must overcome our pride. It is our pride that can condemn us.

Have you overcome your pride?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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What will it take for you to believe?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
(John 20:30-31 (NIV))

It has often been speculated that Jesus performed far more miracles than any of the books of the New Testament recorded. These words from John give credence to that idea. Think about it for a moment. Just how many miracles do you need to have documented before you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God? Will it take 10,000 to make you believe? Will you settle for only 1,000 miracles? Will 100 be sufficient to draw you into faith? Perhaps 10 will be enough to make you realize that Jesus is the Son of God?

Could you believe if you were only told of one miracle that Jesus performed?

If so, which one would it be? Turning water into wine? Walking on water? Feeding the 5,000 or would it be raising Lazarus from the dead? Personally, everything that Jesus accomplished when He walked this earth takes a back seat to the ultimate miracle. Everything that He did, even when raising Lazarus from the dead, was a temporary fix to the situation that was presented to Him. The one and only miracle that has an everlasting effect on all of creation was His resurrection from the grave after a brutal death. Through this one miracle, Jesus has ascended to the right hand of God the Father and He has overcome the power of sin and death for all time.

The time for being a skeptic is over. Look at the miracles. Look at the lives impacted. Look at the promises fulfilled. Look at the empty tomb!

What will it take for you to believe?

Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.
(2 Timothy 2:19 (NIV))

I am sure that you have encountered people who give lip service to Jesus by saying that they are Christians, yet their actions do not speak the same message. Many of these people believe that they can do whatever they want because they have been forgiven. It is true that they have been forgiven if they earnestly accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, but, this does not mean that they can do whatever they want. Paul wrote the contrary to this belief when he wrote to Timothy. Jesus even told the prostitute:

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
(John 8:11b)

He did not tell her to do whatever she wanted, because she was forgiven. He told her that she was forgiven, and to NOT sin anymore!

This is a far cry from what many people believe today. Jesus never taught that it was okay to sin as long as you believed in Him. True belief in Jesus does not allow sin to enter, for Jesus and sin are diametrically opposed to each other just as day is opposite of night. They can never co-exist.

People do have the natural world to deal with, however. We have the distractions of everyday life that come into our view. How can this be stopped? By focusing on Jesus and ignoring everything else that is not from Him. Just as your eyes can focus on certain details and “blur” the other things within the range of vision, so too can our spirits “blur” the things that are not of God. When we do not focus on God, these other things do not appear blurry, and they attract us, or distract us, from where we should be focusing.

What are you focusing on?

Copyright 1998 – 2014 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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