The Word of God is a physical extension of God Himself given to us. The Bible is not merely a book loaded with doctrines and facts, but the very element that gives us direct access to divine truth or eternal truth. It’s also the very element that establishes a connection between God and us. Keep in mind, everything that we know regarding God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, Angels, Satan, Heaven, Hell, Creation of this world, God’s will, His purpose for our lives, and so forth is found through His infallible Word. God is truth by nature. Additionally, His Word is a pure physical reflection of the truth found in Him, along with how He operates. On top of that, the Word of God is as eternal as He is.
All throughout Scripture, God Himself has placed a great deal of emphasis regarding the truthfulness, reliability, sufficiency, and absolute certainty of His Word (John 17:17, Jeremiah 1:12, Psalm 138:2, Numbers 23:19). When it comes to how as human we can relate to God particularly on a personal level, our faith is very important. We are required by God to exercise our faith in Him, if we want His promises to come to pass into our lives. Our faith is representative of our invisible hands reaching back to God’s hands extended to us in order to receive His precious gifts. Faith believes now on the basis of what accomplished by grace through Christ.
The thing is that God has already made Himself available for us, so the only thing that He needs from us that would prove that we trust Him is our faith. Without faith it’s impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). It’s true that we may not have any idea at all regarding where God wants to take us, or what He wants to bring forth into our lives, and the future may also look quite grim, but we have to trust Him no matter what. Therefore, that’s real faith in action.
Why Unbelief is Detestable In God’s Sight.
Unbelief itself is the exact opposite of faith. Unbelief is a massive problem that can become a serious impediment to spiritual growth in the life of the believer if it’s not dealt with swiftly. It’s something that God has hated up to the core because it literally brings Him down to such a low level that’s in no way fits who He really is as the God of the impossible (Luke 1:37, Numbers 11:23). It’s important to realize that unbelief can be very consequential as well. Unbelief had kept a generation of Israelite wandering into the wilderness for 40 years until those who did not believe died off, despite of all the miraculous signs that God had performed in their sight. Their unbelief was so detestable and displeasing to God; consequently, He did not give the unbelieving generation the opportunity to step foot into the Promised Land.
Unbelief develops all kind of evil tendencies and attitudes in the life of the unbelieving individual such as ingratitude, selfishness, arrogance, conceit, and so forth. Sometimes, people compromise the value of God Almighty as a result of unbelief by doing things that they weren’t even supposed to do in the first place. It destroys people’s remembrance regardless of how faithful God has always been to them. The bottom line is that faith is developed on the ground of remembering how God is faithful to His promises. Unbelief also places people into desperate situation where they become easy target of fear, panic, anxiety, and perplexity. Lastly, unbelief is a poison for confidence, certainty, and hope. Oftentimes, instead of allowing the promises of God to settle firmly into our minds; we simply do the exact opposite as a result of our unbelief.
Unbelief Leads to Confusion.
By the way, there is no peace in the life of anybody who harbors unbelief toward God. The reason is that God who is the all-sufficient source who could have sustained you all throughout your trials, for whatever reason, He’s the very One that you cannot even trust. Apart from Him, there is absolutely nothing else that deserves our complete trust and reliance. Interestingly, unbelief walks hand in hand with impatience. Having said that, unbelief always compels people to stop waiting on God and trusting Him, so that they can go and try their own alternatives.
When we act out of God’s will and perfect timing because of unbelief, we will ultimately lose His best. Many times people make their own situation become much worse with their unbelief. When we cannot trust God, it literally rips His heart apart. The very thing that we turn to out of despair won’t even bring us lasting joy and peace. The message we convey to God by our unbelief is that He’s incapable of bringing to pass His promises. Which means that He’s lying to us by telling that nothing is impossible with Him. The point is that if you cannot trust someone, for whatever reason, that’s indicative there is something totally wrong or insufficient about that particular individual.
Unbelief or stop trusting God is tantamount to rejecting His absolute power, providence, faithfulness, goodness, and so forth. It’s evident that we may never express that openly; however, that’s exactly how God takes it. We make Him into a liar, someone who is unable to keep His promises to us, or someone who is not worthy of our complete trust and reliance. Unbelief is nothing more than a contemptuous act that literally infuriates God (Numbers 14:11). Shockingly, Jesus during His earthly ministries did not perform many miracles in His hometown Nazareth as a result of people’s unbelief (Matthew 13:58). As Christians, we need to come to the realization that God is extremely repulsed by our unbelief.
How to Deal With Unbelief
God is always the One who makes the first move when it comes down to trusting Him. God moves on behalf of us by His grace and unconditional love for us. Our responsibility is to respond to God by our faith. We can conclude that without faith we would not be who we are in Christ today. By the way, we had to accept the gift of salvation provided by God to all men through Christ by faith (Ephesians 2:8).
According to (Romans 10:17). faith comes by hearing, and hearing from the Word of God; therefore, we’re left with the sole responsibility of relying heavily on the Word of God, so that it can then take deeper root into us. Then our mind will not be unsettled easily by life’s problems because God is infinitely greater than anything that we’re deeply worried and anxious about. Here is the word of comfort that God has given us as His children in (Philippians 4:6-7).
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Our focus must be on God, not on the challenges that we’re facing. We have to make that becomes a daily habit. When we focus on God instead of the challenges, He is magnified and the problems get smaller and smaller. In all honesty, it’s not easy to shift our focus away from the issues that we’re dealing with on an ongoing basis due to the fact that we’re human. And the issues of life tend to dominate our minds to the extent that we may start losing hope. It’s as though we’re in this horrifying situation struggling all alone. Some of you reading this article can relate to that.
Every day you wake up the first thing that runs into your mind is the issues that you’re struggling with, and it becomes totally inevitable. Moreover, you may have been enjoying yourself with some good friends or with your relatives by having such a wonderful time; however, whenever your current situation crosses your mind, it literally threatens to take away your happiness.
There are times we may feel like we’re trapped completely, which in turn makes focusing on God’s faithfulness extremely hard. No matter how hard we try to set our minds on God, but every time we face a situation which is related to our current struggles, it arouses fear, anxiety, doubt, confusion, and so forth. To reiterate that focusing on God in difficult situations is undoubtedly very challenging. But, remember that God has never asked us to do anything of great importance that’s easy, so the same thing applies to exercising faith in Him.
The good news is that we can still trust God regardless of how difficult it is. It’s quite natural for us as human to feel and react in a certain way when finding ourselves in the midst of certain unplesant circumstances, but the problem lies with what we do after. Do we allow life’s issues to carry us away completely? Do we allow them to influence us to believe that God does not care about us? Lastly, do we choose to stay determined that we’ll trust God no matter how tough it is? The bottom line is that we’re commanded to thank God in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18). As Hall Lindsey puts it, “The Lord considers giving thanks to Him in all our circumstances as the greatest expression of our faith. Conversely, the Lord considers griping about our circumstances as the greatest expression of unbelief.“
For sustenance purpose in the midst of hardships; we can meditate on the Word of God. We can meditate on God’s faithfulness, goodness, along with His ability to provide. Since God is all powerful, there is no reason for letting trials, distresses, challenges, hardships, and so forth to stifle our worship and praise to God. The truth is that as things are getting worst and worst that may be the exact moment God is about to intervene on our behalf. The point is that we must always try to find a way around the challenges for the purpose of trusting God. Keep in mind, our future is not dependent on us, but on God who loves us so much.
For we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
This key principle creates a sharp distinction between the life of the believer and the unbeliever. The hope of unsaved people is attached directly to the things of this world. That’s the main reason their hope is as fragile and futile as the very things their hope is based upon. As God’s children, our hope is rested upon the One who is all-powerful and infallible. So, we should not allow bad circumstances drive us desperate just like unsaved folks who have no hope because we have someone that we can always turn to.
Walking by faith means believing God is making way where there seem to be no way. We must have a firm belief that God will take care of us in any situation we find ourselves into. Life may be going to an unexpected direction with us, but we have to strive to think beyond that in the sense of believing God is able to turn our situation around; thereby, we’ll rely upon Him only. The truth is that God is still in control, and your current struggles did not catch Him off guard. We can find great comfort in knowing God is faithful to His Word and nothing is impossible with Him. Amen!