Why Believe?

2 Chronicles 15:2 – The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. (NIV)

In reading further through the book of Second Chronicles, one sees how this promise was fulfilled repeatedly throughout the long succession of Judah's kings. God blessed those who sought his face, but abandoned those who fell to the worship of such things as created images, human sexuality, and military security, instead of the exclusive worship of the Lord God, their creator and saviour.

In today's world, what is the condition of human worship? Western society, at large, would appear to be worshipping something other than God, perhaps the stock portfolio, the television remote control, or the fleeting passions of youth. What does this tell us? It reveals a society that has no genuine belief in a living God of the past, present, and future; a culture that has given up any reason for hope that this life is not all there is. It lives for the present, because it sees no future, and worships only what it can see, taste, and feel.

Hebrews 11:6 – And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (NIV)

I don't know about you, but the reason I have hope for the future is the supernatural beauty found in the life and words of Jesus Christ. In Christ, I find supernatural love, supernatural justice, supernatural mercy, supernatural wisdom, and supernatural resurrection power. I have read the wisdom of other great religious and philosophical leaders, but nothing compares to the incomprehensible wisdom of salvation through faith in God's "suffering servant", the one rejected and despised by those possessing power, the one spat upon by the self-righteous, yet worshipped by tax collectors and redeemed whores, the one who rose in victory over death. We are either saved or rejected, by our own heart's response to this unlikely King, Jesus of Nazareth.

Matthew 11:25-26 – I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. (NIV)

Prayer: Father God, perhaps our minds cannot understand why our hearts can see the perfect wisdom of salvation in Jesus Christ. We may not know why love, justice, mercy, and truth are things we still care about, even when many around us have stopped caring. It may be a mystery why our hearts are drawn to You, and why nothing else can satisfy our longings. We don't know why, but thank You, God. You have given us both a way to live, and something to live for, in Jesus Christ. Amen.

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