There’s little more we can do as Christians to demonstrate our faith than truly trusting in the Lord. But trust is more than an intellectual belief. It’s more than a conscious understanding and casual acceptance in Jesus Christ. It’s more than just knowing that He lived, died, and rose again for our sins. More than simply believing that He now sits at the right hand of God awaiting the day of judgement. Faith is an action word. Trust is exhibited in behavior. When we trust in the Lord with all our hearts, with true saving faith, our entire lives exemplify our trust.
Belief =/= Saved
When I met with the pastor of our church to go over my membership application, he asked me when I was saved. I guess I should have expected it, but it caught me a little off-guard. I didn’t have a date written down. So I explained how I’d always believed in “something but that I never really knew what or who. I explained that I’d attended church in the past and that I’d felt like I’d always been searching for God. But, I explained, I don’t think I really knew what I was looking for. In summary, I didn’t have an answer. So he asked me another way.
He asked me, “were you saved 10 years ago?” I laughed and said “no.” He said, “okay, were you saved, say, last year?” I said, “definitely not.” Then he asked, “what about 6 months ago?” This time I thought for a minute. I said, “honestly, probably just in the last couple of months, since coming to Biblical Counseling. I’d say maybe 2 months ago.” I was baptized on Easter Sunday, just a few weeks after that.
When I was in high school, I had an English teacher who once told me, “I can’t wait for the day you find God. Because I know you’re going to know what a real relationship with Christ looks like, not just a superficial belief.” I think of my experience in Biblical Counseling as the culmination of that statement.
Missing Christ
Up until the time I was saved, I didn’t know what I was missing. Like faith in Christ was a formula of reading Scripture + Church attendance + prayer = *Christian*. I think I hoped it was that simple. So for years I grew more and more frustrated that I wasn’t reaching the Christian achievement level. Eventually I would just give up. Then He would pull me back in again, and so on.
It never occurred to me that I was missing Christianity—because I was missing Christ.
Poor Examples
When I was “living” in a trap house during my active addiction, there was a woman who lived there who would frequently spit Bible verses at me like bile. She would berate me for certain behaviors or words or actions and lecture me that I needed to find God. It never seemed to matter whether she was also guilty of these things. She only cared to use God’s Word to suit her needs.
My mother-in-law would often pick fights with me while we were living together. If I fought back her favorite phrase was, “God don’t like ugly.”
And I can’t help but think, “this is why people hate Christians.”
And it’s all because we’re missing Christ.
Seeking Christ
Christianity isn’t an achievement or skill to unlock. It’s not about church attendance or a set of behaviors. It’s not about saying a prayer or paying a tithe. Christianity is all about Christ. And when we finally come to realize the sacrifice He made for us, even “while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:8), it’s life changing.
When we search the Scriptures for God’s character, His plan and His great love for us, it’s life changing. What once appeared as isolated stories and events in an outdated book now begin to intertwine. They come together to form a clear timeline of God’s greater purpose. From Adam and Eve in the garden, to you and me today, until and beyond the new heaven and earth, we begin to see how God truly “causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Most importantly, we see Christ in everything. We see Him walking in the garden with Adam and Eve. We see Him in the burning bush talking to Moses, and in the Passover lambs slaughtered to free the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. Eventually we see Him as a newborn baby, born in a manger and worshiped by magi. Then He’s preaching, healing, and loving His disciples. He’s loving people from all over who traveled to Him, tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners like you and me. Ultimately we see Him hanging on a cross, pierced with nails, spears, and a crown of thorns. We see Him suffering the death we all deserve, imputing to us His righteousness, that we could have eternal life with Him in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:21). Then we see Him rise again, and finally seated at the right hand of God.
We Can Trust God
With a proper view of Scripture, and of God, our faith grows into much more than simple knowledge. It grows into trust which ultimately will define our lives. We learn that if God spoke the heavens and earth into existence out of nothing, He can provide for our daily needs. If God waited silently for over 400 years to send His Son to redeem us, He will wait for us to return, too. If a deceiver like Jacob could become the father of God’s nation, we, too, can become God’s children. We learn that if a righteous servant like Joseph can suffer and serve the Lord faithfully in his trials so that God can fulfill His plan through Him, to save His people, then we, too, can serve faithfully in our trials and allow God to use us to accomplish His will.
We also learn that if God cares enough to build such an elaborate plan, spanning generations of time, from the fall to the crucifixion to do what we could not to restore us to Himself, then He certainly cares enough to provide where we are lacking in our day to day lives and in our faith.
Focus on Christ
Finally, we begin to see more clearly. Pulling Him into focus, with our minds set “on things that are above” (Colossians 3:2), our thoughts, behaviors, and actions begin to change. Seeing our desperate need for forgiveness, and God’s great willingness to forgive, we may forgive a little more easily. Reading about His great love for us, we may love a little more deeply. When we keep our minds focused on His sacrifice for our eternity with Him, we may sacrifice a little more, remembering that this life is not all we’re living for.
When we truly trust in the Lord, with all our hearts, everything changes.
But most importantly, we change.
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Emily is a Christian mother and blogger who lives in sunny Florida with her three children. She works full-time setting appointments at a home remodeling company and in her scarce free time she enjoys serving her fellow brothers and sisters in Christ however possible, and spending as much time in prayer, Bible reading and studying, and fellowship as possible. As a recovering addict, she has a heart for addiction ministry, and for creating things so she can give back to those who have need.