Believeth part 2
To believe in something is to put your faith in it. To put your TRUST in it. And when you put your trust in something--or someONE--it can be a little scary. Because we have this idea that, "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." While at the same time we say things like, "Let go and let God." It's the IDEA of giving up control that is both attractive and very very hard to do. I'm comforted by Bible verses like 1 Peter 5:7, "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." But, again, you have to know He cares for you before you can believe it, or act on it. And, of course, by "know" I mean KNOW. Heart knowledge, not head knowledge. Experiential knowledge. If you know someone cares for you, that's when you can cast your cares on them. It's a safe place. There's trust there. Which is one of the reasons Jesus died on the cross. He SAID the greatest love a man can have is to lay his life down for his friends. But words are wind sometimes. Sometimes they blow in one ear and out the other. So He put His money where His mouth was and He went to the cross and literally laid His life down for us. 1 John 4:9 in the NLT says it like this, "God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him." Because Jesus didn't just die FOR us. He also died AS us. So that when He rose again WE could rise again. We live in Him, and He lives in us. We don't have eternal life "because" of Him... we have eternal life THROUGH Him. It's His life. And we experience it as He lives it in us, and through us, and as us. Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. And this is where our idea of "doing it ourselves" falls apart. We can't do it ourselves. That's what the Law taught us. It didn't teach us to behave. Behavior modification doesn't work. It taught us that no matter how hard we tried we were doomed to fail. The Law of Moses demanded perfection without being able to produce it. All it could do was point out your mistakes. It couldn't fix them. That's why--on the cross--Jesus fulfilled the Law. He nailed it to the cross because it was against us. He didn't want us overruled by an external list of do's and don't's. He wanted to rule over us--rule THROUGH us--as a King in His Kingdom. His Kingdom of Love. That's what eternal life is all about, and that's what it means to "have faith in God." Because God is love. Having faith in God is having faith in love. Eternal life is knowing the one true God, and the One whom He sent. Knowing the unconditional love relationship between Father and Son. Knowing God AS Father, and yourself as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Knowing all of that... and believing it. Receiving all of that love... and releasing it. DOING something with the gift we've been given. Experiencing it. Sharing it. Giving it away. You can't give what you don't have, right? And you can only give what you do have. So in order to love you have to know and believe that you are loved. In order to live you have to believe in the One--Jesus, love--who IS life! But here's the key, and we're going to really get into it tomorrow, SEEING is believing...!