Want To Believe

In the second book chronicling the kings of Israel, there is a story of a famine that was far worse than anyone reading this now has ever experienced. Grain could not be had at any price. One day the prophet told the king, "Tomorrow grain will be selling for pennies here in this city." The king’s right­hand­man responded with, "Even if the windows of heaven opened, that would not be possible."

The subject of faith has not been a particularly easy one for me to grasp properly, but this tale sheds some light. The king’s advisor clearly did not respond in faith, but his lack of faith did not prevent God from keeping His promise; it only prevented the advisor from personally enjoying the results.

The prophet, in response, merely said, "You’ll see it with your eyes, but you won’t eat of it," and his statement came true.

That reminded me of another instance where a lack of faith is credited with a similar result. Moses was allowed to see the land of promise, but he was not allowed to enter it.

I thought, also, of the instance where Jesus was in his home town, and it says he could not do miracles there, because they didn’t believe. That always stumped me, because I couldn’t figure out how my faith could possibly control God’s power. I think the answer is, it doesn’t.

If I don’t believe, God can still work, but the principle seems to be that if I don’t believe, I can’t enjoy God’s work. If that is the concept, how could Jesus do miracles if no one in the entire town believed? There would have been no one available to enjoy the benefits of Jesus’ miracles, so he couldn’t work any.

This does two things for me. It takes a load off—because now it isn’t actually my faith that does anything. What a relief that is! It also gives me an incredible incentive to believe every word He says. After all, I don’t want to see that He has kept His promise, and find myself not in a position to enjoy it. That would stink pretty badly.

We are told that without faith, it is impossible to please God. I’m thinking, also, that without faith, it is impossible to be pleased by God. How can He give me any pleasure if I don’t believe Him? How can I ever be pleased by anything He does if I don’t believe in Him?

I’ve known people who believe nothing that purports to be a word from God. They are suspicious of everything and everyone, and are very definitely not free to enjoy anything the Lord might do. I don’t want to be like that.

I may have a rough time believing that the Lord would want to do some certain thing. I may even question that He was actually the One who spoke to me.

I want to believe, though.

I want to experience everything He has to offer.

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