What do you believe? Who do you believe in? Do you ever spend time pondering the answers to these questions? Have you wrestled with them for long enough to know without a doubt what you believe?
We live in a cynical world. Our attention is plied for from all directions. There are as many opinions as there are people we interact with. Each of them attempting to convince us to join them in their point of view. We hear opinions put forth as truth, then changed, and told there is a new truth.
We have become skeptical of just about everything we hear. Our guard is up as soon as someone starts relating a story to us. This is especially obvious when it comes to politics. Yet, it is also true in our everyday lives. If you don’t believe it is true, take a moment to think about your family, the stories different members relate to you and the amount of credence you put into their story.
This is not to say we should not believe anything. In fact, it is just the opposite. We are to believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. We are to know Him through His teachings, actions, and miracles to the point that we can base our belief of others on the truth of Jesus.
You may be wondering how we can base the truth of a story a family member is telling us against Jesus. It is very simple. When we have invested the time to know Jesus, we build filters or markers to determine what truth is. This then provides a means to determine the truthfulness of what we hear from others. We might call this determining the character of someone.
God sent His Son to be our Savior. Believing this is the first and most important belief we are to start with. Once we believe that, we expand our understanding and belief in the character of Jesus. If we believe there is one God who is presented to us in three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—we must believe all that Jesus taught. Believing Jesus is our Savior and loving Him for that, our belief is strengthened as we come to know Him better.
Those who believe in Jesus, trusting Him, is no longer condemned. We have no reason to fear this world. We know that we will continue to live forever, we simply change locations. How comforting is that? We transition from one location to another.
I pray we all decide to believe in Jesus. I pray we accept Him as our Lord and Savior. I pray each one of us will live in the truth of God’s Word. Know what you believe. Believe in Jesus. Trust God’s promises. Live without condemnation. Live in the truth.
John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Marty Pressey 