All faith is birthed from the perch of
unbelief. What that perch seems to an
observer, hatred, fear, ignorance, or arrogance, makes little difference; it remains
the absence of faith, which is unbelief.
When our oldest grandchild was six, she had a
grand time swimming in our pool. She
could not, however, bring herself to plunge into the water. It was always a baby steps kind of
process…toes first, then ankles, shins, and so-on. The head never got more than half-wet. Most of my time in the water on those lazy,
hot Florida afternoons was spent encouraging her to take a leap into my arms
from the pool deck. There were plenty of
false starts. Five steps back to gain
speed, begin the run, and….scrrreeeech to a halt, just short of the pool’s
edge.
But, one day, it finally happened. Chelsea worked up her courage, threw caution
to the wind, and jumped – a perfect cannonball…down to the depths below. When she bobbed-up to the surface, she shook
the water from her eyes and proclaimed like a town-crier: WELL….THAT was an experience!
Whether faith comes like an unexpected
lightning-bolt, flashing into existence to obliterate all else in its path, or
in increments like a hardly-observable changing of the tide, faith must take
its first breath at some point. There
comes a time when unbelief becomes trust.
A line is crossed. False starts
become certain leaps. That which was
questioned becomes trusted, and faith is born a reality.
God instructed the beloved apostle John to end
Scripture’s revelation with that assurance – what you’ve seen and heard
is trustworthy.
·
All the words of
Moses, from Genesis to Deuteronomy,
·
and of the
chroniclers of Israel, from the Judges to Kings,
·
and the poets of
Psalms and Proverbs,
·
to the prophets of
minor and major days,
·
as well as the
Gospel and Epistle writers,
·
down to the very
final invitation to take the leap of faith in the One who stands at the door,
knocking…every bit of it is trustworthy and true.
And every bit of it will change your life from agonizing
unbelief to assurance unlimited. It
simply requires letting go of the perch.
For You Today
If you’ve never leaped beyond your belief, you’ve
not experienced even the baby steps of the adventure God has planned for your
life. Many starts…many screeches to a
halt, just short of getting wet. What
are you waiting for?
There are about 2,000 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper on
today’s topic, explore some of these:
Distortion and The Importance of Jots and
Tittles
Images: Title Pixabay.com Images without citation are either personal
property of the author, or in public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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