American Reformation Church Prayer Journal 69
ARC Prayer Meeting:
Last Sunday our message was “Love believes all things.” On face value that seemed difficult to comprehend its true meaning. We know that God’s love does not believe in unbelief. It does not believe in superstitions. It does not believe in idolatry. It does not believe in lies, etc. etc.
We also know that God’s love does not promote that God’s people should be ignorant, willfully ignorant, naïve or gullible. We are, however, to be wise in what is good and simple when it comes to evil (Romans 16:19). Love believes all things does not mean we throw away our ability to discern and judge between what is good and evil in God’s sight.
It does mean we seek to believe the best about people and grant them the benefit of the doubt. It means we seek to avoid the cynicism and skepticism of this age that can skew our lens that will ill affect the outlook on our lives and our view of others. It means we live out God’s love in such a way that it inspires and draws out the best in people rather than push their buttons to bring out their worst.
One of the words highlighted in this Biblical phrase is the word “believes.” In some ways there are no distinctions between faith and belief. They can be interwoven. For instance, the Gospel of John was written so that “you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). In other ways there is a distinction.
Belief often refers to an intellectual acceptance of facts. If you ask the average person on the street if he believes George Washington existed, most would affirm that belief. Faith has the added idea of trust and commitment. It goes beyond mental assent to a whole-hearted commitment that will act on our beliefs.
If you recall, Jesus challenged His disciples with something they truly wrestled with and that was, “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him” (Luke 17:3, 4).
Their response was Lord, “Increase our faith.” I know they did not pray to the Father in Jesus’ name, but they were still asking Almighty God in the flesh to impart something that they knew was lacking in their lives. They needed the added faith to love and forgive in a manner that would please the Lord. We need to have similar requests and God’s intervention today.
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