Believe God
What are you believing God for? I recently heard a story of someone telling a fellow Christian in need that if they need something, they should believe God for it. The story ended with God’s provision and also ended with me asking myself, “Am I believing God for the things I need?”
A few months ago I had a financial want (I won’t even say need). I told my husband about this want, asking him if we could fit it into the budget. His response was, “No it’s not in the budget, you better believe God for it.” My response was, “Okay that’s what I’ll do.” And that’s what I did. A week later an unexpected check arrived in the mail for the exact amount I was believing God for. Without hesitation, I knew this was the provision I had been waiting for, and being that the amount was exactly what I stated I needed, my husband agreed. We’ve believed God and have seen Him provide numerous times throughout the years, so to believe God for something isn’t new. I just began to ask myself, “Why don’t I do it more?”
Whatever your need or desire is, as long as you love the Lord, He wants to fulfill it! God’s desire to meet a need doesn’t make it happen (even though He certainly can). For whatever reason, He has chosen to partner with us in faith. Hebrews 11 takes us through the great men and women of faith who believed God for things throughout the Bible, all obtaining that which they believed for. The common denominator between all of the people of faith wasn’t the need, but how they obtained the breakthrough. By faith. To believe God for something means to have faith, not only that He can do it but that it’s already done. This made me reflect on all the times I’ve had a need and stopped at recognizing that I had a need. God is not moved to action by need alone. If that were so, we would see more problems in this world resolved. God responds to our faith. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith like this, “Now faith is the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Confidence & assurance are the anchor words in this sentence. We have to not only recognize the need but take it a step further and believe God for the answer. To believe God for something, whether it is the salvation of a family member, a healing in your body, a financial need, or even peace of mind is to have confidence in who God is, confidence that we are saved by grace and that in assurance we have already received the promise. In other words, when we ask according to his will, God always says yes to our requests.
If this is how faith operates, why do we worry instead of believe? Why do we always try to provide our own answers through our own strengths? I hope you are challenged today, as am I, to believe God for more in my life. When I make things happen in my own strength, it’s good. When I believe Him for it and He provides, He is good! He gets all the glory. In those moments the answered prayer isn’t even the focus but rather the God who answered the prayer is the focus! I’ll leave you with these two words today, whatever is on your heart today, BELIEVE GOD!