Believing Life

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Thursday, ‎June ‎11, ‎2020 Good morning, Lord V.O.D.: Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! M.O.M.: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27 In a year: Ezra 3-5 John 20

Believing Life

Gospel of John, chapter 20, verse 31 says, "...these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." This is the general way it is translated in many of the translations. In the greek it reads word for word like this: "...that believing life you may have in Him."

It is a life of faith. It is a life of believing. It is a 'believing life'. For us to have life in Christ, we must 'believe life'. Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. Mark 5:34 ►He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you..." John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

Any of us who attempt to teach must realize that what we teach may be read or heard by folks at all steps of their spiritual journey. Some may just be starting out. Some may be deep and wise and much learned. Most of us are somewhere in-between. We are learning step by step-syllable by syllable-trial to trial-failure to confession to victory.

All of us never escape one thing-we live a life of faith. We live a 'believing life' in which we grow in believing life-believing Jesus-placing our lives in His hands day by day, more and more.

We never 'outgrow' the need for basic faith-growth in God in the name of Christ Jesus. Our faith either grows or it withers. We are never in a 'plateau'.

I have always been amazed at gliders. I have childhood friend who is a pilate and I remember his telling me of going up in a glider. He spoke of the silence, except for the rush of the wind; the freedom of catching another up draft and sailing on and on. The thing is, you are either going up or down-and you cannot stay up there forever-you must land. A pilate must have faith in his own ability and faith in the aircraft. He must have faith that the chosen time of flight offers optimum conditions for sustained flight. All of this with one guarantee: once up there, you will come back down-one way or another. They believe-all of them who glide-all believe it is worth doing over and over.

Believing life is forever worth it. No matter how we say or how well we word it. You can complicate it if you want to-many of us make life a lot harder than God desires but He knows how we are. The question is how well do we know 'how He is'. Yes, we have fundamental faith, but how far are we willing to trust Him?

Growing faith renders a deepening courage. Believing life gets more difficult at times than we think we can take and this is where the growth happens. Those places where we can feel ourselves falling. The problem, sometimes, is like the song says: "Falling seems like flying until you hit the ground". We must know when to pull up-that time when we realize or admit that we are headed for a hard impact because of our own sin.

Believing life also means that we have a refuge to fall into when we are so tired of fighting that a lift seems impossible. But in Christ, there is always an updraft-always.

How do I know? John says that He wrote his gospel so that we would "...believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. I also know because life, believing life, the Holy Spirit of God, never leaves. He is my, our, constant companion, strong arm, heavy lifter, healer, provider, sustainer and ultimately more.

Please be encouraged-if you feel your faith is weak or feel it weaken-our great God and personal friend and the lover of our souls never weakens. His relentless urging continues forever-all from His heart for you-His measureless love for you never falls. It is a continuous updraft-always lifting-always enduring.

...because He loves us...

Father in Heaven, I know, I have weakness and I need lifting. Forgive my weak focus. Lift me to a place higher. Great and merciful Father, In the name of Jesus, Amen