Faith - Believing

I've been thinking about faith lately. I call myself Christian. I believe in Father God; the creator of all things, all powerful, all knowing, everywhere present, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and I believe in Jesus, our Messiah; the One who makes it possible for me to believe in Father God at all. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me.”(John 14:6)

I say I believe but do I really believe? There is so much evil happening in the world today that I can say for a fact it is testing my faith. When I think about it though, if all this stuff that is going on was not happening, would I even think about God? I'm not so sure. I don't believe that God causes all this evil. I think this is the work of the Devil. However, who gets blamed for not preventing the evil? God does.

If we can't believe in an all powerful God how is He to help? There is a scripture verse somewhere that says something like, “You don't have because you don't ask.” Again, if you don't believe, Who will you ask? The closest scriptures to what I thought I remembered is found in James chapter 4 which I think is appropriate to what I am saying.

James 4:1-10 Common English Bible (CEB)

Conflict with people and God

4 What is the source of conflict among you? What is the source of your disputes? Don’t they come from your cravings that are at war in your own lives? 2 You long for something you don’t have, so you commit murder. You are jealous for something you can’t get, so you struggle and fight. You don’t have because you don’t ask. 3 You ask and don’t have because you ask with evil intentions, to waste it on your own cravings.

4 You unfaithful people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world's friend becomes God's enemy. 5 Or do you suppose that scripture is meaningless? Doesn’t God long for our faithfulness in[a] the life he has given to us?[b] 6 But he gives us more grace. This is why it says, God stands against the proud, but favors the humble.[c] 7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. 8 Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Cry out in sorrow, mourn, and weep! Let your laughter become mourning and your joy become sadness.10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

John 14:13-15 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

13 Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

I think that whenever we read the words “in My name” it's another way of saying “believing in me”. Jesus' disciples even struggled with faith, believing the One who was right there with them.

John 14:8-12 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

8 Philip *said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”9 Jesus *said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. 12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

Matthew 7:7-11 Common English Bible (CEB)

Asking, seeking, knocking

7 “Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door is opened. 9 Who among you will give your children a stone when they ask for bread? 10 Or give them a snake when they ask for fish? 11 If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.

Matthew 6:24-34 Common English Bible (CEB)

24 No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Worry about necessities

25 “Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are? 27 Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Notice how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. 29 But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these. 30 If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, won’t God do much more for you, you people of weak faith? 31 Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ 32 Gentiles long for all these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.34 Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.