Do We Believe?

I call myself a believer, but do I really believe?

When my friend calls from across the ocean and says her mom has cancer, I tell her I’ll pray. When my sister messages me to let me know that this season of life has been hard and today harder still, I tell her I will pray. When someone I love is hurting physically and some Advil doesn’t fix it, I tell them I’ll pray. I tell lots of people I will pray.

Then I follow it up with, “If there is anything more I can do, please let me know.”

I end the conversation feeling like I should do something more, maybe if I was just there in person I could actually help. Is that what believers do?

A “Believer” is “a person who believes.” Now that’s profound, right?

So what does “believe” mean? Believe means to “to have confidence or faith in the truth.”

Truth. Now that is a Word.

Jesus talked about Truth in Scripture. In John 17:17 in a prayer for the disciples, He said, “Your word is truth.” Not long before in a conversation with Thomas in John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus said the word was truth and that He was the truth – so which is it? This question is answered in John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”

Jesus is the Living Word, so both the written Word of God and the Living Word of God are truth.

Do I believe? Do I have confidence in the Truth? If I ,in fact, believe, then I know and trust that when I pray, when I truly lay these burdens at the foot of my Savior that this is the greatest work. Being there, physically doing something, is nice, but if I think that is the “real help” then I am missing the point.

To believe is to have trust and in confidence in the truth. Truth says, “As for me, I call to God, and the Lord saves me. ¹⁷ Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice” (Psalm 55:16-17) This and in many other instances, Scripture reminds us that the Lord hears.

If He hears us, the next question arises. Will He actually do anything about it?

The Bible reminds us many times how much God loves us, not just that one moment He sacrificed His Son to save us. But in so many other instances and actions, His love is repeated over and over again. In Romans 8:38-39, Paul testifies to just this fact when he says, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

If He really loves us and it is within His power (because He is, after all, all-powerful) to help us, why wouldn’t He? He does.

So today, as we sit distant from people we love and care for, as we long to be there and actually “do something,” be reminded that we have been given a greater task.

Our job, our privilege, is to take those requests, needs, burdens to the foot of the cross to a God who loves, hears and answers.

It is truly the greatest work.

We must believe in who He is and the promises He’s made then trust Him with the outcome.

Believe that prayer is the greater work.

 

What are you praying for today? How can I pray for you?

 

 

 

**This post is part of the #MondayminutewithGod linkup at Planting Roots!