To quote a favorite holiday movie, The Santa Clause, “seeing isn’t believing, believing is seeing.” I’d like to think there was a biblical connotation to that line, but I likely won’t ever get the chance to ask the writers directly. The question here is: why do children believe in something they’ve never seen before so easily? That’s a topic for another day, but it lends itself to my next point: children don’t need proof like adults do. Someone tells a child Santa will leave them presents under the Christmas tree, and they wholeheartedly believe it without ever seeing proof. It’s this “blind, unproven belief,” if you will, that salvation and walking with the Lord requires. It’s likely the most difficult aspect of drawing closer to God. My faith isn’t something I earned or came about by growing up in a church; like most things from God it was a gift.
“Faith is always a gift from God, and never something that can be produced by people. In short, (“faith") for the believer is "God's divine persuasion" – and therefore distinct from human belief (confidence), yet involving it. The Lord continuously births faith in the yielded believer so they can know what He prefers, i.e. the persuasion of His will (1 Jn 5:4).” – Source: BibleHub
Earlier this spring I was having a hard time truly believing I could receive, and justly deserve, the Lord’s forgiveness for my sins and that I couldn’t do enough good to earn my way to heaven. I couldn’t get to a point where I felt like I believed it; I was trying to put my faith in words I saw on a page. My husband, Kennedy, said something truly profound to me: ask God to change your mind about it. I think about this short conversation every single day. It was pivotal.
Asking God to help me believe all those things I mentioned previously wasn’t the miraculous, mountain-moving experience one would expect. In fact, it’s progressively happened in the last few months and will continue to do so for the duration of my life. When a true, rooted-in Jesus, born-again Christian says they believe in something it’s more than just the words they’re told to regurgitate. It’s an honest, spiritual experience for them and that’s why Christian’s want to tell anybody and everybody about it, to shout it from the rooftops!
Believing in God first begins with a mind shift, even if only a sliver of a change. Since the Lord was gracious enough to give us free will, we have to make that mind shift before we’re given the gift of faith.
In the last month I’ve learned of several individuals receiving a diagnosis accompanied by the word cancer. One of these individuals I know better than the others, but whom I won’t name, has displayed a monumental amount of faith and trust in Jesus. So much so that it’s almost like the diagnosis hasn’t happened. Not everyone can understand this seemingly blind, unproven faith while staring down an uncertain future. It can actually be explained by a somewhat difficult to read math equation:
blind, unproven belief in God = the inbirthing of faith directly from God + pillars of faith
When we believe in God without requiring proof that it will pay off in the end, we’re given the gift of faith. We no longer have to persuade our mind to believe what God’s promised because he revealed to us that’s true as a “reward” for our unproven belief in him and his promises.
While watching American Gospel: Christ Alone on Netflix, I gleaned some knowledge that helps me better understand how this faith business works. One of the individuals being interviewed discussed the story of David and Goliath. He talked about how many sermons have used this illustration to empower the church to defeat the Goliath in their life. The problem is, we aren’t supposed to be David in the story who defeats the giant with the help of God. It’s actually a story about David's faith and God fulfilling his promise.
The Goliath’s in our lives that truly matter are sin and death. Not what you expected? Likely not. Financial inadequacy, relationship stress, illnesses, etc., all might seem like they compare to Goliath in size, but when you actually think about it they’re fairly small when eternity is at stake. The story of David and Goliath is supposed to illustrate the power of God birthing faith into us, just as he did for David. It didn’t start with God birthing faith into David, it was a function of David’s belief that God was on his side. It’s a story to dig into more, but it’s interesting to think about in that context.
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