Is Believing A Part Of Being?

'Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.'  (Hebrews 11:6  NKJV)

We've devoted the two previous posts establishing the premise that man has spent a considerable amount of time (about six thousand years, but who's counting, right?) attempting to make God more 'manageable' and 'convenient.'  Early on in this exercise in futility some folks realized that what God, through His spoken and written Word, has always declared as truth, that His was the only game in town worth being in.

'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.'     (Revelation 1:8.   NKJV)

I've said on several occasions, and I'm sure I will do so again in the future,  that until each of us can get just a tiny glimpse of ourselves the way He sees us, through His eyes, that we'll not begin to be able to understand how how He can love us the way He does.  The writer of Hebrews, when he was following the inspiration of God in putting what we commonly refer to as 'the faith chapter' to paper made the very relevant point that one of the things made possible [for man] to do  was to believe that God 'is', that He existed.  Okay, now let's keep going and take the Biblical truth that a very important thing for man to believe is the fact that 'He is...'' with us on a short trip down history lane.

'So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.'    (Genesis 1:27    NKJV)

Okay then, we've got it straight from Scripture that we're all walking and breathing and believing in Gods own image.  Here's the thing that all too often slips by and causes man to slip up, and that is that man has an inborn need to believe in something or someone.  We all received this need as a part of what should be thought of as our spiritual DNA.  Does  anyone have any idea where this is heading?  If we accept as truth that we're all created in God's own [Spiritual] image, and within our Spiritual DNA is the coding that leaves each of us with the need to believe in something or someone, is it a logical step to make the statement that God needs to believe in us just as much as He needs us to believe in Him?  Did anyone see that coming, or did everyone else, except me, already understand this?  Because I didn't until He had the Holy Spirit take me by the hand and lead me down the road that brought us to this point.

Here's the thing to keep in mind, man is a mutant.  By this I mean that man, made in the [Spiritual] image of God the Father,  is as foreign to this world as moose scat is to a bowling alley.  A large part of what man has done in the last six thousand or so years while trying to make God Himself more convenient or 'user-friendly'  has also been aimed at man trying to fit [comfortably] into the world.  Let's take a quick look at what two of the better-known apostles have to say about this.

'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present  your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove  what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.'    (Romans 12:1-2  NKJV)

And,

'Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war  against the soul,'    (1 Peter 2:11  NKJV)

Jesus made the point more than once that He was not [Spiritually] of this world, and in one of the last prayers He put before God He included the recognition that neither He nor His disciples and followers,  whom He acknowledged as having been 'given' Him by the Father, were 'of' this world.

' I have given them Your Word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.'    (John 17:14-16  NKJV)

Now we're in a real predicament, and that is how to wrap this up, for today at least.  Normally I would give you'll a couple mind-boggling words of wisdom that would leave everyone with their mouths hanging open in awe at my amazing intellectual prowess.  But I feel that this is an issue that should never be put away or set aside for another time.  So, what do you say about keeping this issue always in the forefront of our prayers, our thoughts, and our daily lives before the Throne?

BE BLESSED BROTHERS AND SISTERS!