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It is a great thing to be a believer, but it is also easy to
misunderstand what the New Testament means by it.
It is not that we believe Jesus Christ can do things, or that we
believe in a plan of salvation; it is that we believe Him;
whatever happens we will hang on to the fact that He is true. If
we say, 'I am going to believe He will put things right',
we shall lose our confidence when we see things go wrong.
We are in danger of putting the cart before the horse and saying a
man must believe certain things before he can be a Christian;
whereas his beliefs are the result of his being a Christian, not
the cause.
Our Lord's word 'believe' does not refer to an
intellectual act, but to a moral act; with our
Lord to believe means to commit. 'Commit yourself to Me', and it
takes a man all he is worth to believe in Jesus Christ.
The Great Life is to believe that Jesus Christ is not a fraud. The
biggest fear a man has is never fear for himself, but fear that
his Hero won't get through; that He won't be able to explain
things satisfactorily; for instance, why there should be war and
disease.
The problems of life get hold of a man and make it difficult for
him to know whether in the face of these things he really is
confident in Jesus Christ.
The attitude of a believer must be, 'Things do look black, but
I believe Him; and when the whole thing is told I am confident my
belief will be justified and God will be revealed as a God of love
and justice.' It does not mean that we won't have problems,
but it does mean that our problems will never come in between us
and our faith in Him.
'Lord, I don't understand this, but I am certain that there will
be an explanation, and in the meantime I put it on one side.'
Our faith is in a Person Who is not deceived in anything He says
or in the way He looks at things. Christianity is personal,
passionate devotion to Jesus Christ as God manifest in the flesh.
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