Believe

Our memory text this past week was Genesis 15:6. "He believed in the Lord and He counted it to him for righteousness."

Yesterday, our pastor and his wife were in our "young adult" Sabbath School class with us. When the teacher went over the memory text for the week, our pastor stopped her and just said, we need to discuss this.

Pastor Westgate wanted to make sure that each one of us understood that Abram believed in the Lord and His promises. It wasn't Abram's altars, his sacrifices, his honesty, integrity or musical preference. Abram believed in the Lord.

Someone in the class asked how one can believe and yet be at such a different "stage" in their relationship with Christ than someone who perhaps has believed on the Lord for many years.

The first thing to come to my mind was my husband. So I related this to the class, and I think it helped me to even better understand my relationship with Christ.

When I first met Karl, I believed that there was something special about him. So, I took advantage of opportunities to get to know Karl better. Then I believed that Karl was someone I might be interested in dating. So we started spending time together. Next, I believed that Karl was an important part of my life, and I didn't want to date anyone else. We spent more and more time together, sharing our thoughts, dreams and goals in life. Soon, I believed that Karl was the man God had intended for me to share my life with.

At each stage, I believed. As I spent more time with Karl, my belief in our love grew. It is the same with Christ. The moment we believe, we are His. The more time we spend with Christ, the more we see what He is in our lives, and the more we believe in Him. Our belief in Him grows as we spend precious time with our Savior. Yet the truth remains that we were just as much Christ's when we first believed as we are Christ's when we have believed and grown in Him for 20 years or more. God is amazing!