DECIDE TO BELIEVE IN HIM
You believe in God by choosing to believe in God. It is a decision that only you can make. No one can make that decision for you, but no one can stop you from making it. Always remember that.
You can decide to believe in God anytime you want to. And believing is how you interact with God. Faith in Jesus is how we serve God and please Him.
Faith is the foundation of the Christian life because it is the only way that we can focus on Jesus Christ. To focus on God’s Son, you have to believe in Him.
Consider these words from the 11th chapter of Hebrews about faith: “Now faith is the substance of things we hope for, the evidence of things we do not see. For by faith the forefathers received a good testimony. By faith we know that the worlds were made by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made by things which we see with our physical eyes. By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice to God than his brother Cain did. By doing this, he demonstrated that he was a righteous man, and God accepted and testified of the gifts that he offered. By his faith, Abel still speaks to us through the things that he did, even though he himself is dead. Enoch walked with God and was taken away to heaven so that he did not go through death here on earth. When people sought him, he was not found because he had gone to be with the Lord. Why? Because he had this testimony: he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:1-6).
Simply put, faith is where it’s at when it comes to our relationship to God.
Salvation is from faith to faith (Rom. 1:17). That is, everything about our relationship with Christ is based on trusting in Him and loving Him. It begins with faith and it ends with faith.
Jesus is the author and finisher—the beginning and the end, the source and the goal—of our faith. “And so because we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses who demonstrated to us what it means to live by faith, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily entraps us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. We can only do this by looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne” (Heb. 12:1-2).
This means that living for God begins with faith and it ends with faith. You start by believing in Jesus and you end by believing in Jesus. You believe in Him until you leave this world.
And believing in Jesus is a decision. It is putting all of your trust and all of your heart into accepting that He is who He claimed to be. Accepting Christ means to give Him your life. You turn everything over to Him.
Your life and my life is to be about Jesus. And by living our lives for Jesus, we believe God and we are ready to meet Him. Jesus is the one who can get you in. He is the one who seeks us. He is the one who can and will save you.
Without Him, we are lost. There is no hope without Christ. But with Christ, everything is going to be fine. Everything will be alright. If you have Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you will go into the next life and live forever in bliss and glory. It is Christ who is salvation.
Bryan Dewayne Dunaway
