"I Believe"

by Grace Bellingham

I’m coming to a new level of peace in my life, and this peace is born out of absolute trust in God and His leadership in my life. Peace that ‘passes’ my understanding of things is a peace that is produced by nothing but trust in God. I am a believer, and trust is a necessary ingredient for my faith. Without trust there is no believing. In Isaiah 7:7 it says that unless you believe you cannot get established, and until we are established there can be no trust, and until we trust there can be no peace. As believers we must have a sure foundation—that foundation is no other than Christ Jesus Himself. He is the foundation upon which we build our lives. Not what is popular or accepted in our society; not the opinions of friends or family; not what we think or feel, but Jesus Christ, His Word, His leadership, His will for us. He is the foundation upon which we build our lives and until we believe we cannot get established enough to build anything strong or definite.

Satan knows this and he goes about as a roaring lion seeking to devour anyone who will play his mind games with him. He does this by asking questions that have no definite answers. These are questions that lead only to doubting the sure foundation, the easy leadership of the Holy Spirit and the consistent hand of God. These questions have no other purpose but to plant seeds of doubt in your heart and keep you from moving forward, but unanswered questions are a part of living. Those unanswered questions must be left in the loving hands of God as we trust Him with all of them, allowing Him to lead us and not our finite minds with our limited understanding. The Holy Spirit never asks us things that have no sure answers. He does not undermine our faith. He will never fill us with doubt in His consistent leadership in our lives. Instead, those demonic questions have no other purpose than to undermine our believing. First, believing in God is basic to our faith in God, and that faith in God builds trust in God and more believing. Next faith and trust bring us peace that passes our own understanding of the circumstances that can at times rage in our carnal minds.

To forge the rivers of doubt that that seem to be raging out of control, we must navigate by the leadership of the Spirit of God and nothing else. There are times when we cannot afford to go by our thoughts or reactions whatsoever. We have times in our lives when nothing is as it seems, and that is when we must choose on purpose to follow the inner compass alone. God alone knows what must be done for us to fully accomplish His purposes in us, and He sets the things in motion necessary for us to be molded by the friction of life. He uses the spoiler for His own purpose, and uses it as the instrument of change in our lives.

God has throughout our lifetimes taught us circumstance by circumstance to follow the easy leadership of the Holy Spirit and through it all to receive the love of the truth of His Word. In every turn of our lives there is profound truth in which He wants to establish us, and He is motivated by this above all else. This process takes humility—that profound attitude that says, “I belong to God alone, and He can require from me whatever He chooses, and I will submit to it with humility of mind and a quiet acceptance of His will for me.” In I Peter 4:6-11, Peter (who by the way was well aware of adverse circumstances) tells us that humility is the key to the times in our lives when the ‘mighty hand of God’ is upon us. He says that those are the times for us to cast our care of the circumstances onto God and watch out for the devouring hand of satan. Although satan’s desire is to use those same troubling circumstances to undue our faith and completely upset our lives even to destroying us, God has other plans altogether. He will give us His abundant grace to see us through, and at the other side after we have ‘suffered a while’, perfect, establish, strengthen and settle us. He will make us more sure of His leadership than ever before. God does not take us in a direction for years and then when things blow up change direction as a reaction to the trouble. He has designed the trouble for the very purpose of further preparing us for the call of God on our lives. His whole motive for all that happens in our lives is to see us fulfill His holy calling. God knows our purpose and has promised to give us the tools to accomplish it.

Peter ends with, “To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.” God is in charge and He receives all the glory when we choose to say yes to his Word. Let Him fully do what He is doing in you, and give Him the glory for what He does. But throughout the experience of it be found believing, not doubting. Trust in God not the false evidence that mounts against the consistent hand of God in your life. Live by faith and not by what you think you see.

Believe, believe, believe. Stand on what you believe. Build on what you believe. Command what you believe. Look for what you believe. Speak boldly what you believe. The only one who doesn’t want you to believe is satan, God is counting fully on you believing and building your life on what you believe. You can stake your life on what God has said. The transforming grace of God is at work in your life; your responsibility is to believe. The only time Jesus was limited in the Scriptures was because of unbelief, so don’t limit Him in what He is doing in your life. Instead, believe! No matter what your eyes may see or your ears hear, believe. The greatest gift that you can give to God is to believe.