Fearless Faith: Believing God's Character

Everything has a starting point. God started with nothing before creating the world. Moses started with the message God gave to him at the burning bush (Exodus 3:7-9) before entering Pharaoh’s palace. The early church apostles began with the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) before launching the church. And Paul started with the vision of Jesus (Acts 9:3-6) before spreading the gospel. Whatever road you and I are on also began somewhere with a starting point.

            For the believer to do greater things for God and to bring glory to the One who purchased their salvation, I believe it starts with our topic today. We must believe His character! However, before we can advance further, we need to observe the difference between knowing and believing. Sometimes as I talk to my husband, it seems he is not paying attention. I’ve been known to ask, “Are you listening to me?” He will then say “yes” while he proceeds to repeat what I just said. I then say, “Just because you heard me doesn’t mean you listened.” Do you see the difference?
 
           The same is true about knowing versus believing. Let me try and put it in simple terms. Knowing is head knowledge, believing is heart knowledge. Just knowing something does not change us. But believing engages our hearts. When our heart is engaged with belief, everything changes for us: our actions take on new life, our focus is redirected, and our own desires take a back seat. I remember the day my heart was awakened with belief. I grew up going to church and I heard the Bible stories time and again. Still, I wasn’t enjoying freedom in Christ. Then one day I heard the truth in a way that truly penetrated my heart. At that moment, my heart became alive with the truth. And that was the moment everything changed. I was never the same again.

Follow me for the next several weeks as we learn more about God's character and why we should believe.