Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 1: Believe in God!”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
I really didn’t know that about you!
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone you thought you knew pretty well only to have them reveal some part of them or their past that you never knew?
Perhaps it was the “missing link” to really understand a person and how they view the world and interact with it. Perhaps it was just a fun trivial fact.
I wonder…no, I know…that there are many people who would be surprised if they really got to know the true God as he’s revealed himself in the Bible.
Too many go through life with a perception about God based on movies they’ve seen, people they’ve talked to, or even bad church experiences they’ve gone through.
As a result, they have an incomplete at best or a completely wrong perception of God altogether.
Getting to know God is a lifetime opportunity. Even after being a life long Christian (50 years) and pastoring for 25 of those years, I am still uncovering and marveling at who the true God is and what impact he has in a very real and personal way on my life.
I could claim great diligence in uncovering and discovering God, but it is the opposite. God reveals himself to us as we spend time in his Word of truth.
What do we uncover? What does he reveal to us about himself that we can believe with 100% certainty?
This short concluding verse of Second Corinthians summarizes it well:
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Cor. 13:14)
In this brief verse, God reveals a lot about himself we won’t find in nature, our conscience or our soul.
- He is a God of free and faithful grace.
He willingly gave his Son Jesus Christ to come to this earth to do what you and I could not do for ourselves so that we might be restored into a right relationship with God after our sin broke it. Jesus lives a perfect life, which he credits to our account. Jesus died an innocent death which pays for all the debt our sin accumulated. Jesus rose again to prove the payment was paid in full and we too will live with him forever. ALL of this he gives to us as a gift of grace!
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know that he gave up his heavenly riches for you. He gave up everything so that you could be richly blessed. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
- He is a God of free and faithful love.
The fact that the true God would put his name on us and claim us as his own…true love. The fact that God would show his love to individuals who have rejected and pushed him away all too often…true love. The fact that he has made us part of his family through baptism and called us his children…true love!
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1)
- He is a God of free and faithful fellowship
God the Holy Spirit loves to build unity in the hearts of people. He is the one who works faith in our heart to trust what Jesus did for the world is ours personally. He is the one that builds unity of faith among people that we might enjoy the relational fellowship of the Church. He is the one that solidifies and strengthens our relationship with God and opens our heart to allow God himself to dwell with in us. He is God the Holy Spirit, the god of free and faithful fellowship or unity!
3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:3-6)
Nature tells us of God’s power and knowledge. Our conscience tells us of God’s justice and accountability. Our soul seeks the divine and the presence of God. The Bible completes the picture by revealing the Triune God as the Father who loves us, the Son who saves us and the Spirit who restores our relationship with God.
God wants you to know this about him!
Apply: Open your Bible and read a chapter…any chapter. What does that chapter teach you about God? What insight about God might you say, “I never knew that before!”
Prayer: Lord God, thank you for revealing yourself to us through the pages of the Holy Bible. Lead us on a lifetime of learning and fascination to learn and experience things about you that we have never known or experienced before. AMEN.