Believe
Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness
Genesis 15:6
The foundation of our Christian lives starts with believing the truth about God as revealed in his Word. The beginning of a walk with God starts by studying the Word and knowing that God is faithful. The more we read the Word, the more we study the Word, the more we believe that what God tells us is the absolute truth. God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? (Numbers 23:19)
The first steps to salvation in Christ are to believe and repent. Repent means we desire walk in the ways of God and away from the ways of the world, and how can we do this if we do not believe? If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). If we have repentant hearts then we believe in our hearts. When we believe in our hearts, we respond to that belief by trying to be obedient to the ways of God. Abraham believed God and proved his belief by obeying God, leaving his home and moving in the direction toward the promised land.
Faith is when we act on our belief, because from the Word we have learned to believe God. Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ (Romans 10:17). From the message we believe God’s promises and when we act on this belief we reveal faith. 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). God is pleased when we reveal our faith, because it tells God that we know him from studying the Word and believing his promises. We cannot believe in our hearts unless we understand God from the Bible, His love, and His faithfulness.
In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast (Hebrews 6:17-19). God goes to great lengths in his Word to prove his faithfulness and love, because he wants all to believe the truth. Satan can feed us lies, and make the sinful world look appealing, however it always ends in eternal death and torment. God is Light, and light always overcomes darkness, and if we read and study God’s Word, the Light will destroy the darkness in our souls.
Today believe God’s truth as revealed in the Word. If you are a seasoned Christian, then reinforce God’s truth in your heart and let it strengthen your faith. If you are searching for God, read the Word; I suggest starting with 1 John followed by the Gospel of John. When you read the Word today, first pray and ask God for understanding, and commune with God during your reading with questions you may have, then close with a prayer of thankfulness.
Let’s Pray: Lord, help me to always believe and take away any doubt that comes from Satan. Let your truth remain in my mind and my heart, so that I can reveal it to others. Guide me in the Spirit to show my faith through my belief. In Jesus name, Amen