Believing

The challenge to live as a believer who believes has captured my thoughts of late. I have been a believer for much of my life. I am a believer in the powerful work of grace found in Christ Jesus. I am a believer in the infallibility of the Scriptures. I am a believer in the power of the gospel to transform lives. But the transition from being a believer to believing is not an easy one. To live every day believing the Word is true, expecting God to act, actively waiting for Him to appear in my mundane, daily sameness is a working out of my salvation that is far more difficult than my passive life as believer. The journey from the noun believer to the verb believe is one that cannot be done alone. I am finding it requires a body of fellow believers who are learning to believe. Believers who pull me forward into active believing. This doesn't happen in the planned moments, but in the unplanned ones. It happens in the midst of worship together, in shared prayer, in testimonies of God's unrelenting presence in the life of His people. It happens while lamenting over the lost sleep a new baby brings and the terror of a cancer diagnosis. It is while we pray and live together that the verb believe comes alive among us. Life together, together in Christ, together in the fullness of His grace, life poured out by the work of the Spirit in others. Church at its best.