How many times have we allowed fear or focusing on our insecurities to take priority over what God has promised us? Several years ago, I read Beth Moore’s book “Praying God’s Word.” In the book she talks about the difference between believing in God and believing God. I realized at that moment that I was more of the former than the latter and I needed help. It was easier to believe that God exists—that He has this incomprehensible and amazing power that created the universe, all of mankind, and every living thing above, beneath, and upon the earth. However, when it comes to walking through a challenge, stepping out on faith to fulfill a dream, overcoming an illness, or seeing ourselves in His image, we struggle with demonstrating unwavering faith, confidence, and conviction that says we “believe God.”
Do your daily actions and comments provide clear evidence that you believe God will do what He said,
and that you will fulfill all that He has promised to you?
Zachariah was an example of believing in God but failing to believe God when Gabriel appeared before him and answered his prayer to have a child. Interestingly, Zachariah was of the tribe of Levi, a descendant of Aaron, and served in the house of the Lord as a priest. He burned incense upon the alter of the Lord which means he was one of the few priests who had been cleansed through the process established by God to enter into the holy place. While “serving God,” Zachariah was visited by Gabriel, an angel of the Lord, and told that his prayers of having a child had been answered. Although he and his wife, Elizabeth, were considered too old to have children, God’s power would once again take precedence over nature. Through Zachariah and Elizabeth, God announced that He was sending John (aka John the Baptist) into the earth (Luke 1:17). With one question of doubt and a justification as to why he and his wife couldn’t conceive, the angel silenced Zachariah so that he couldn’t speak until the baby—the promise—arrived.
How many times have we attended church services, bible study, prayer meetings, and Sunday school, and heard about all of the miraculous works of the Lord and read about all that He has done, is doing, or will do for His people? We hear testimony after testimony of God’s awesomeness and power, yet when it’s time to believe God and step out on faith, we doubt. We offer up prayer requests then doubt the answer when it comes, or reject the package in which the answer is wrapped because it’s unfamiliar. We quote scriptures of faith, yet reject opportunities when God sends them through people we don’t know, or through people we know too well. I have come to learn that the veracity of God’s word makes unbelief a sin.
If you have found yourself demonstrating unbelief in what God has promised you by not stepping out on faith to fulfill what He has put in your heart, then you must ask Him to help your unbelief, just as the father did in Mark 9:23 when his son needed deliverance. Jesus said to the father “all things are possible for one who believes.” Even after saying this, the father said “I believe. Help my unbelief.” In other words, he wanted to believe, he needed to believe, but he also needed Jesus to help him to believe.
Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (KJV), and therefore requires that we demonstrate our faith through works (James 2:20). There is so much God has for us and for us to do, and we cannot let unbelief cause us to forfeit our blessings. If we are to experience the fullness of life and our destiny, we have to go beyond just believing in God, we have to put faith into action and believe God.