April 2019

Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.

Hebrews 11:1 NLT

In your mind you know there is a God. You’ve read about him and heard people tell about him. And yet you cannot truly sense his reality. There must be more.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), included the following illustration in a sermon. He said, “your mind can know honey is sweet, people can tell you it’s sweet, you’ve read books about it, but if you haven’t actually tasted it, you know with your head, but not with your heart. When you actually taste it, you experience it for yourself, you know it in a full way, and you can know it in your heart.”

To develop faith in God, we need to have both—in head knowledge and heart knowledge. With our minds we learn what we read and hear about the Gospel. About Jesus. But true faith is not learned with the mind alone. Faith that we can truly feel develops by engaging the heart and the spirit.

We’re drawn to God by what we’ve heard about him. We’ve heard about his goodness, his kindness, mercy, steadfast love, and generosity and we would like to make him part of our lives. But how?

What helped me long ago, as I was becoming a follower of Christ, was to realize that having God living inside me meant to have his love there. God and love are synonymous. They belong together. As I quietly lay in bed, I asked God to fill my heart with that love. It didn’t take much more than that prayer to have love’s warm feelings enter. Something definitely happened inside me. It could happen for you too. All it takes is to open your heart and earnestly ask him to come in.

But God’s love is not ours to hold tightly and keep to ourselves. It’s meant to be shared. Once God has filled you with his love, it will—without apparent effort–flow freely to those whose lives you touch. You will learn what it means to live in God’s Spirit. You’ll know without a doubt that God is who he says he is: Creator of all there is. The God we can always trust. The God who loves us so much that he gave his all for us.

What you learn with your mind will give you an abundance to bring to your heart learning. The Bible will show there’s much more. So much more. You’ll learn about God’s son, Jesus, and how Jesus gave himself for us. How he died and how your sins are forgiven through what he did.

Ask God to help you search your heart and absorb these wonderful truths. And when he has helped you grasp all this, the overflow of gratitude you’ll feel will make your faith complete. God and his son Jesus will start becoming real. Truly yours.

Why not open your heart to God’s love today and allow him, through Jesus, to make his home there with you? It will change you.

marja