Believing God


Monday so soon? Hope y’all had a terrific weekend.

Tonight is the last class in my “Believing God Bible study by Beth Moore.* What a terrific study it has been.

From the first day, Beth offered a five-statement pledge of faith that became the framework for our commitment to learning to believe God more than we ever had before:

God is who He says He is.
God can do what He says He can do.
I am who God says I am.
I can do all things through Christ.
God’s Word is alive and active in me.

When we studied the third statement, “I am who God says I am,” she reminded us of six glorious facts from Ephesians 1:

I am blessed. (v. 3)
I am chosen. (v. 4)
I am adopted. (v. 5)
I am accepted. (v. 6)
I am redeemed. (v. 7)
I am forgiven. (v. 7)

And at the center of all these incomprehensible and glorious truths is the fact that we are loved by God.

This study is so rich and there were weeks I couldn’t invest the time in the homework as I wanted. There were some chapters that to benefit fully required much thinking, praying, and writing. Now this is definitely up my alley so I’ll be returning to this study throughout the summer, camping on those sections where I glossed over the first time.

In this final lesson, Beth said something that resonated with me deeply in light of the events in my life over the last couple of years. She wrote:

“One of my new mottoes has become: if I err, let me err on the side of belief. God looks on the heart. I’d rather Him see misguided actions from a believing heart than safe-and-sound actions from an unbelieving heart.” (pg. 203)

A couple of paragraphs later, Beth writes—and this is the part that really got to me:

“One of the inevitable questions each person challenged to believe God has to answer is whether she is willing to risk being wrong….One positive result of past failure is that you surrender the pursuit of perfection and, if you’ve gained any sense, replace it with the pursuit of God’s redemption. Nothing is more redemptive than faith in God. You learn that failure may be painful, but it’s rarely fatal. After coming to grips with the high premium God places on our faith, I refuse to give up a life practice of believing God just because I accidentally swerve off the road a few times in my faith journey. Hebrews 11:6 says that faith pleases God, not perfection.” (pg. 204, italics mine).

This is ministering to me even now as I am making it my life pursuit to believe God is who He says He is. I began praying several years about returning to the Northwest before actually leaving Nashville. In fact, I prayed seriously for two, and from the time I first announced it to a couple of close friends, it was still another seven months before I actually packed up and moved.

I had His blessing then and I have His blessing now. There have been some aspects of this transition that are proving to be considerably more difficult than I’d anticipated. Was I short sighted not to consider these obstacles? Not at all. I’d considered them and prayed through them. Did I think they’d be this difficult, though? Absolutely not. I couldn’t have known. If I’d known beforehand, would I have had the courage to move? Honestly, I don’t know. I’d like to think so. Especially considering everything I know about God. These trials are custom crafted and allowed to grow me into the woman God wants me to be. God’s good plans for me are different from His good plans for you. He loves us all the same. Perfectly.

But here’s the coolest part. I did move and I am here and I have the peace of God flowing through every ounce of my being. I’m believing God the best I know how and this is what makes Him smile. Faith in Him makes God smile. And I have to say, making the God of the Universe smile is an extraordinary thing to be able to do. Compared to Him, I am so tiny, He could squish me as an ant. Instead, He delights in me just because I want to believe Him. He’s not smiling because I’m doing everything right. Boy, am I glad of that!

Elizabeth Eliot is quoted frequently for her simple exhortation when in the throws of a difficult trial or overwhelming day: “Do the next thing.”

Sometimes we can feel stuck as a title wave of overwhelmingness washes over us. (Is that a word?). We can become paralyzed, thinking what do I do? What you do is simple. You do the next thing. Change the baby’s diaper, make the kids lunch, kiss your husband or wife good bye, fold the clothes, drive to work, mow the lawn, take out the trash, whatever it is, there is always the next thing. I’m comforted by this. I can do the next thing. For me, that is uploading this blog.

Blessings all today and may this be an absolutely terrific Monday. I’ve already decided it’s going to be a great day.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19 NIV)

*Believing God by Beth Moore. LifeWay Press, One Life-Way Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234-0175. ©2002

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2 Responses to Believing God

  1. A says:

    Great stuff as always, dear friend. 🙂 Thanks for the smile.

    Love,
    A

  2. Ruth says:

    Smiling heart, smiling heart, smiling heart. Your blog (Monday) is a ribbon the the package of that study. Even though the study is over, I’ll be tuning in! Ruth

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