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Choosing To Believe - Anchor
Choosing To Believe - Anchor
Choosing To Believe - Anchor
“‘If You are the Christ, tell us.’ But He said to them, ‘If I tell you, you will not believe.’”—Luke 22:67 1
No one can force anyone to believe anything. Each one of us chooses whether we will believe
something, based on our evaluation of the evidence presented to us. Faith and belief may have different
English meanings, but in the New Testament they are different forms of the same Greek word. Believe is
the verb and faith is the noun for the same word. (Like think and thought are in English.)
John 20:25: “The other disciples therefore were saying to him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to
them, ‘Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the
nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’” 2
Note that Thomas said, “I WILL NOT believe.”
Many think seeing miracles would cause people to have faith. But the only ones who believe as a result
of seeing miracles are those who choose to accept the miracle as sufficient evidence for them to believe. It
is still a choice. “Although Jesus had performed so many miraculous signs before them, they still refused
to believe in him.” 3
I used to think faith was difficult to pin down with certainty—something like a feeling or state of
being. But now I understand that once we make the decision to believe, we are in faith, no matter how we
may feel. At its heart, faith is always a decision. No one can force you to believe in anything. The choice is
yours.
However, we cannot believe or have faith in anything without evidence. We must have evidence that
convinces us before we can believe something. The primary evidence God has given us so that we may
have faith in Him is His Word. God is not a liar; He can be trusted. Whatever God says always comes to
pass. So if someone says they don’t have much faith, the solution is for them to see the evidence from
God’s Word on that subject, then choose to accept what God said as true. Then they will have faith. At that
point they may not feel anything, but they have faith.
The primary action of faith toward God is speaking in agreement with God’s Word. Jesus said if you
had faith you would say. So we express what we believe by the words we speak. And then we stand in that
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position of faith, regardless of feelings or circumstances.—From aDevotion.org
Growing faith
Faith comes—it grows by hearing the Word of God. It’s not a sudden boom. “For faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” 11 That’s the law of faith.
But how often lack of faith is due to ignorance! Faith is built on the Word: Read it prayerfully and ask
God to strengthen your faith. He’ll always answer the hungry heart. His Word will give you faith for it.
God cannot only do it, but He wants to do it! When the poor leper came to Jesus and said, “Lord, if
Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean,” the Scripture says that “Jesus put forth His hand and touched
him, saying, ‘I will; be thou clean.’ And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” 12 He’s more willing to
give than we are to receive.
All He asks from us is that we honor Him with faith by believing His Word and trusting His promises.
“For without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and
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that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Trust in the Lord. “He hath never failed in one
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of all His good promises.” —David Brandt Berg
Published on Anchor November 2017. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso.
Music by Michael Dooley.
1 NASB.
2 NASB.
3 John 12:37 NET.
4 http://adevotion.org/archive/faith-is-a-choice.
5 For example, Proverbs 2:2; 23:15.
6 Acts 16:14 NIV.
7 Acts 17:23 NIV.
8 John 4:22–23 NIV.
9 John Stott, Christ in Conflict: Lessons from Jesus and His Controversies (InterVarsity Press, 2013).
10 Hebrews 11:6.
11 Romans 10:17.
12 Matthew 8:2–3.
13 Hebrews 11:6.
14 1 Kings 8:56.