Sent on March 15, 2017
Greetings to all:
What you choose to believe is important: Jonathan Whitfield was preaching to coal miners in England. He asked one man, “What do you believe?” “Well, I believe the same as the church.” “And what does the church believe?” “Well, they believe the same as me.”
Seeing he was getting nowhere, Whitfield said, “And what is it that you both believe?” The coal miner said, “Well, I suppose the same thing.”
Many believers never really take a close look at what they believe. Oh, they would say they are believers as far as accepting Jesus as their Lord, but beyond that they just have a general idea of what their church believes but never go deep enough to examine their personal belief.
In John 11:40 Jesus said, “If you would believe you would see the glory of God.”
The Greek word here for glory is doxa, meaning “opinion, judgment, view, estimate”.
In other words “if you believe”, you will understand God’s opinion, His judgment, His view on any situation and His estimation concerning people and things.
If we are going to experience God’s glory as defined above we are going to have to know something about His character.
“If” implies choice. “If” we choose to believe, we will see the Glory of God.
Do you realize that we can choose what we believe?
Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you they are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). If we choose to believe that statement made by Jesus and we want the life that He is talking about then we make our choice by feeding on His words.
Jesus says, “All things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:25). In the words of Robert Fritz, this means “If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from God’s power to bring the impossible to pass, then all that is left is compromise.”
Make the choice to go with God. He even tells us what to choose.
In Deuteronomy 30:19 we read, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life.”
People who don’t make hard choices are drifters. Drifters allow the world to write the story of their lives.
Today you may be dealing with some decisions regarding relationships or a job that is not going well. It might be a health situation that you are concerned about. Whatever the situation, make the decision to believe that God is going to bring something good out of it.
When Jesus said “if you believe you will see the glory of God” He was talking about demonstrating God’s glory by bringing the dead back to life. You may have something on the inside of you that needs resurrection life. Trust Him to demonstrate His glory in your life.
In case you haven’t heard it yet today, I want you to know that you are the blessed of the Lord; His face is shining on you and you are loved!
Love to all… pb
P.S. Here are some practical ways you can deepen your trust and belief in God: 4 Ways to Deepen Your Trust in God