To Believe?!

On the marker board in our kitchen, the one Michelle keeps to remind us of important dates and items, the word BELIEVE has been written at the top for a very long time. When that word was first put there, we were looking at the fact that I currently do not have a Church to Pastor and we have been desperately praying that God would bring us to the Congregation that He has prepared for us. We truly believe that He will fulfill His calling on my life. Yet, we still do not have a church, right at two years after we began our step of faith and began the journey of following God's leading.

Well, then came Janie Beth's fatal diagnosis of thanatophoric dwarfism. And suddenly that simple word took on another focus. We started praying that God would work a miracle in Janie's life, and we truly believed that He could. But even if He didn't work that miracle, we truly were filled with the belief that God knows what is best. Yet, Janie still died and we still had to bury her.

So I sat there today and looked at that word one more time...BELIEVE!

Did you know what the word believe in the New Testament really means? We are told to believe in Him for everlasting life. Well the word being used is the Greek word pisteo, which is an action verb. The noun form of that word is the Greek word pistis, which our Bible translates...FAITH. I find it interesting that the is no verb form of the word faith in the English language, so the closest the Bible translators could come was to say BELIEVE. To have a proactive faith in God. To trust Him explicitly. I can stand at the bottom of a small stairwell and say to my child, jump, and they will. Why? Because they believe with an active trusting faith that I will catch them.

So I sat there looking at that word one more time...BELIEVE!

The journey before us is not about believing in some magnificent church for me to preach at. It is not about believing in some hoped for miracle. It is not even in believing that we will make it through the dark times of our lives. The journey before us is a simple question that I am convinced God is asking us...Do you believe ME?

You see, had God provided that Church when we wanted it, we would not have had the friends and unimaginable support and love network we have had during this time. Had God let Janie Beth have her miracle here on earth, the lives touched by Michelle's testimony blog would not have been as vast. The bottom line is that we are called on, as God's people, to believe on Him and not in the end result we may wish for, desire, anticipate, feel we need or whatever. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only born Son, that whoever believes in Him, will not perish but have everlasting life."

"Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24)