Day 6 - Week 4 - John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him...."

Do you believe in the Son that God sent---Jesus Christ?  In my generation, in the area that I grew up, almost everyone when asked that question would have said without hesitating, "Oh yes, I believe in Jesus."  These days, you won't find that question answered so broadly with the unequivocal "Yes" of 40-50 years ago.   You are likely to get many different responses as to a person's "spirituality" or their "belief system."

While I am a strong believer in Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life, this change in response does not bother me as much as you might think.  For while I wish everyone to come to an acceptance of Christ as their Savior and to understand that He holds the answers to every question we may ever have as to life, death and life everlasting, I would rather hear an honest response of someone stating that they are just not on board with Christianity, than an automatic, unthought out response of, "Yes, I'm a Christian" just because it's the expected response. 

For while it's easy to say, "I believe" and then quote John 3:16 as proof that you will be in good shape for eternity, we all need to understand that there's responsibility in the words we are stating.  If we are going to wear the name of "Christian" than we need to remember that we are representing Christ here on earth, we are his agents, carrying out His mission until His return.

What does "believe in Him" mean to you?  Is it a one-time confession and then a life following that confession that bears no resemblance to the example that Jesus left for us?   While "believe" means "to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to place confidence in" the meaning also carries with it the idea of fidelity...to be true to.  So if you "believe" in your marriage, you will be true to it.  If you "believe" in your children, you never lose faith in them...if you "believe" in Jesus Christ, you will be faithful to Him and long to increase your service to Him.  As Rich Jones, a Bible School teacher that I used to have, said..."We don't believe just for the 'fire insurance' --- that's not complete belief."  In other words, we don't believe just to avoid hell...we believe because we have come to the conviction that Jesus is the truth about God, and we long to live with Him forever in eternity.

For those of you who haven't come to this state of belief, I pray you will keep seeking truth.  I pray that you will never rule out Jesus Christ because of any previous bad experience that you may have had, but will keep an open heart toward the true message of Jesus Christ. 

For those of us who do believe, I pray that we will never stop at a simple statement of belief and miss out on all that Jesus is ready to share with us right now, here on earth.  We are in a position to share in His work right here and now...that's exciting!  Don't waste years wrapped up in the distractions that so easily ensnare us and keep us from doing God's work to His glory.  Believe....completely and wholly...living a life of fidelity to our Savior...He is deserving of everything that we can offer.