Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God.  John 3:18 HCSB

God created us to be in fellowship with Him. How can you fellowship with someone in whom you don’t believe? We were created to believe in Him. We were created to submit to Him, to praise Him, to worship Him and to love Him. When we don’t do what we were created to do, it leads to problems. Our scripture passage tells us that when we don’t believe, we are condemned.

We sort of fell into being parents of beagles. While I won’t bore you with the story of how we wound up with three rescued beagles, I will say that they were quite different than any dogs we had ever had. You see, they are scent hounds. This means that God gave them an incredibly strong sense of smell, much stronger than our sense of smell and also much stronger than many other dogs sense of smell. For this reason, they tend to follow their nose even if that leads them into trouble. It’s what they were born to do, smell. It’s their purpose. This is why they make great hunting dogs and also great police dogs for sniffing out drugs, cadavers, or trailing people, anything requiring a super strong sense of smell.

The purpose of your car is to get you from point A to point B, right? When it fails to do this, it is useless.

Our purpose is to believe in God. Now many of you are reading this and saying, “Of course, I believe in God.” But I challenge you to look at your life today and ask yourself if you truly believe. Do you really believe that God loved you so much that He sent His son to die for you (John 3:16)? Do you truly believe that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35)? And most importantly, do you truly believe that if you keep your focus on God that He will work everything else out for you and provide all you need (Matthew 6:33, Romans 8:28)?

Often times we say that we believe in God, but we worry. We say that we believe in God, but we are negative and frustrated. We say that we believe in God, but we take his name in vain. We say that we believe in God, but we live as though there is no God and no heaven and no hell.

So I ask you today to look at your life. Look at how you treat others and how you talk, does that indicate a firm belief in God? Does that indicate a close fellowship with your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Do people see you and hear you and know that you are a believer?

You either firmly believe or you are being tossed about by every whim, feeling and circumstance.

We were put here to believe. When we believe in Him, we want to praise Him, we want to glorify Him through our words as well as our actions. We want others to have this great belief that we have found.

My friend if you are trudging through life focusing on all that is wrong, I ask do you truly believe that He can make it right? If you do, then you have hope. If you have hope then I assure you it will show. We were born to believe. If you have gotten into some kind of rut where your belief is running low, know that He is there for you. You can turn to Him.

You have heard me say that if God isn’t happy with us, then we won’t be happy. We are told in Hebrews 11:6 that without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him. My friend if you are just living a life of unbelief, then know that there is a beautiful life awaiting you if you could only believe. Know that God wants to bless you and take good care of you (Jeremiah 29:11). But first you’ve got to believe. You must believe that He exists. You must believe that He’s got your back. You must trust in Him and allow Him to guide you in all situations. If you do this, you won’t just be surviving, you will be thriving (John 10:10). God wants us to have an abundant life. If you are not thriving, check your belief and assess where you are with it. Ask God to strengthen your belief and remove all doubt. Trust in Him and know that all things are possible through Christ (Matthew 19:26).

We were born to believe, don’t let the devil stop you from doing what you were born to do.

Have a great day!