Something To Believe In

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:17-20).”

When we are children, our world is confined to the house we live in, our parents, siblings, and perhaps, grandparents or other extended family members. And we are perfectly content in that world. As we grow, our world expands to include school, friends, and outside activities. Our world continues to grow larger the older we get. There eventually comes a point when we want to know what is beyond our city, state, and even our country. It’s a big world and we often feel the need to explore whatever it is we think lies outside of our view. It’s how the world was conquered. If not for those who wanted to know what lay beyond the great oceans, the New World would not have been discovered. If there had never been anyone who looked into the sky and thought, what if I could build a rocket to take someone there, Neil Armstrong would have never set foot on the moon. We have an inborn desire to know who we are, where we came from, and why we are here. People have traveled millions of miles, built monuments to unknown gods, and traversed the stars seeking answers only to find they still have questions. We are all simply searching for something bigger than ourselves to believe in.

“By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible (Hebrews 11:3).”

Belief in anything takes faith. If you go rock climbing, you have faith in your gear and your training so that you don’t plummet to your death. When you jump out of an airplane at 13,000 feet, you have faith that when you pull the cord, the parachute will open. Every morning when you jump into your car to go to work, you have faith that turning the key will start the engine. Everything we do requires some belief that what we are doing will succeed. But what about the biggest questions of all – is there a God? If there is a God, why is planet earth so messed up? What is the purpose of life in the grand scheme of things? Why am I here? Those are questions I’ve had too. And after a lot of exploration and faith in things that did not matter, or were not good for me, I came to the conclusion that no amount of education or knowledge of this world is going to answer those questions for me. Those answers were inside of me my whole life and are completely answered by faith and belief.

“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).”

We are born with a God-shaped hole inside of us. I tried to fill mine with everything but God, and I was never satisfied until I filled it with the Word of God. No, I didn’t come to the conclusion that Jesus was the answer because there was suddenly some enlightened place inside of me; I concluded Jesus was the answer because all else had failed. Nothing I had tried in life fulfilled me, nothing had made me feel as if I had the answers, and almost everyone in my life had let me down. Yet I knew somewhere deep down inside that there had to be an answer, there had to be more, and when I was out of answers, God gave me His.

“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).”

God created everything that is created from nothing. He spoke it into existence. He also gave us that desire to create, to explore, to expand, to reach for more. But He never intended for us to do it without Him. That is where people went wrong. We became more, had more, did more, went farther and created monuments, not to unknown gods, but to ourselves. We stepped outside the scope of creation in the false belief that we could do it ourselves. That’s why, no matter how successful we are or what we accomplish, we still feel unfulfilled. That God-shaped hole can only be filled by one person—Jesus Christ.

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16).”

Read Job 32-36

©2018 Marie McGaha