Believe!

 When the people asked Jesus, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?", Jesus answered them,

"This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent."

One might ask, "How difficult could that be?" It doesn't sound like work.

To me, I feel it deep inside my soul that what Jesus said here was very profound.

If we made it our life's work to believe on Jesus, what would we be actually doing? Probably, lots of praying, for one thing.

Not only that, but, it seemed like such an impossible task for some people. And this profound statement is just so multidimensional!

When you first read it, it seems ludicrously simple, even a little self-aggrandizing, or you might think Jesus is being a little too elementary.

What does the word 'believe' actually mean? The Oxford English Minidictionary says:
1. accept that something is true or someone is telling the truth.
2. have faith in the truth or existence of.
3. think or suppose
4. have religious faith.

Most of the time, I dislike the word, "Christian" as a way to identify myself, so I call myself "a believer". The reason for that is because, the word Christian has soooo many connotations and assumptions and misconceptions attached to it. However, I do know for sure that I believe in Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. So, I prefer to call myself a believer (by faith!).

Believing is such a difficult thing to do! It doesn't come naturally and, I don't 'believe' you can do it without the help of God.

There was a man who was asking Jesus for healing and when Jesus asked him,
"Do you believe I can do this?", the man answered,
"I believe! Help my unbelief."

He knew that there was some unbelief mixed in with his beliefs. We all have doubts. Only God can help us to overcome them.

Across the street from my house, there is a brightly painted red Buddha box where people of that persuasion go to offer sacrifices and burn incense. I see people coming and going from there throughout the day. They come by car, they come by bicycle. They seem so dedicated to offering sacrifices to a false idol.

Why is it so difficult to believe in Jesus?

Here's something else: We are living in the age of FAITH.(Why is it called the age of faith? That's because, God used to talk to humans. People like Moses, Abraham, Jacob and all the prophets heard God's voice and Moses got to see His back in a burning bush. There was tangible evidence of God. If you go back to Adam and Eve, God walked with them in the Garden of Eden. They didn't need faith to believe in God. He was right there.)

Now, the Bible says that "faith that is SEEN is NOT faith." In other words, if you have seen it with your very own eyes, it's pretty easy to believe what you saw. That doesn't take much faith, does it?

Even still, some people refuse to believe it even when they see it! "There are none so blind as those who will not see."

Believing in Jesus is work. That should be our whole work.

One of the things I love about Jesus is the way He continually spoon-feeds us. It's like He went around saying over and over, "Believe. Believe on Me. I and My Father are One. If you can't believe in Me, believe Me for the works sake." And on and on, He always put His cookies on the lowest shelf and spoon-fed the Truth to us. All we have to do is receive it. Or, believe! Believing is receiving.