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Faith IV - Have Courage to Believe ...
Monday, Sept 1, 2014. Have you ever thought about what keeps you from believing in Jesus? It is an interesting question - and an important question as well. Sitting on my terrace this weekend I realized again: there are several points where I believe, but do not follow. I would not call this real belief - it is more a version of non-belief!
Believe in Him …
Believing has several components. There is the mental component: to believe is to be convinced that he is right. When Jesus claims to be the Christ, then belief is convinced that he is the Christ indeed. But there is then the second component: trust. Without personal trust in him, there is no belief. You might think he is right, but not trust him. You might even try to avoid him - that is no belief then!
Third, belief has the component of action. Trust without action is no trust. You cannot trust when you never do. Only when you act, when you change your behavior, when you do what you believe and when you trust the person you believe in, then your belief starts to be real belief, actual belief.
Let us listen a little bit to the Gospel of John, talking about belief.
36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, 40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.” 41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. 42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. (John 12, 36)
Have Courage to Believe …
Here, we hear about the first, the mental component. People do not see what is right. The bible talks about “being blind”. Faith is about gaining new sight, about opening eyes, the eyes of the heart. That is an important point, and it can be an important point in our life as well. We might see to some extent, but our hearts are hard and we cannot fully come to faith. Then, faith is taken away from us, and what remains is merely some cultural knowledge about faith or Christianity, and a lot of bitterness towards people of faith.
But the text talks also about the courage to confess our belief. Here, many from the authorities did not have the courage to confess. It might be a difficult point! We are all part of this world, with all the rules and expectations. We are all part of a social system, which acts on us with pressure and expectations. We might follow these expectations - but they can conflict faith, they can be in conflict to the trust in the Lord. Then, we need courage to stick to the truth, to walk with the Lord.
When I sit in a quit place, I realize that all the difficulties are active in my own mind and my own emotions. I realize that all three moments: the mental part, the emotional parts with trust and decisions, and the action components, are part of my own struggle with faith as well. I want to believe, but I realize that many parts of my life do not follow easily. His light is fantastic, yet in conflict with many other attractions. That seems to be a part of the reality of faith as well! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts