God Said It, I Believe It, That Settles It!

Hmmm, what would my life be like if I really lived this way? Let's break this way of thinking down into its' pieces: 

"God said it!"

When I was a child, most parents had this answer when their children whined the infamous, "WHYYYYY???" 

"Because I said so!" 

Of course this was mostly the Mama-response, for most children didn't dare whine the "why" to their fathers.

When those Mamas said, "because I said so" she meant the conversation was over. We were to respond accordingly simply because she was the Mama and we were her children! 

There's something really simple about living that way. 

But today is a new day where authority seems to mostly be questioned, and people are on a mission to discredit it all together! They don't call it authority, of course not! It sounds too rebellious to question authority. Instead they challenge "the institutions," "the governing forces," "the religious order" and the "cultural norms." Basically, those things that determine how we live our lives. 

We are living in a season of massive (I'm talking seismic) culture shift. 

"God said it" doesn't mean what it meant before. Today people might ask "Which god?" 

For those of us who are resisting the culture shift, "God said it" still means that we've read it in the Bible. And because we read it in the Bible, we accept it as Truth.

For the Christ-follower, the Bible is more than a book, it's the rule book, the manual, the personal letter from God. Because we consider the Bible, God's Word, we align our lives with its teaching. We love the Bible! We love it because it's filled with promises, and instructions, illustrations and even insight into things to come. For us, the Bible is living and active. It penetrates not only our minds but our hearts and souls. The Bible transforms the way we think and therefore the way we live.

People who don't trust God don't get it. They think the Bible is an ancient book about ancient people written by men whose ideas are out dated. (But even the Bible explains that this is how things would be. Check out I Corinthians 1:18.) 

For me, the Bible is the beautiful word of God, a miracle in and of itself. It is a collection of 66 books that span the course of 1500 years, written by 40 different men representing various walks of life; from slaves to shepherds to farmers to kings; all living in various historical, cultural, linguistic and educational contexts and writing in a variety of genres yet telling one cohesive story.

Just that impacts how I respond to the statement, "God said it." 

"I believe it." 

I just told you part of why I believe it. I believe it because God said it and I believe God because He's given me this book that tells me how it all works together from start to finish (with a whole lot of interesting in between.).

But, I think I believed it before I knew all that about the Bible. I chose to believe God because my parents believed God. I watched how they lived their lives and took note of the many ways that their faith worked. I saw their faith work when my Dad lost his job. I saw their faith work when they both served in the church. I saw their faith work when they had disagreements with each other. I saw their faith work when unpleasant surprises interrupted our lives. In all my observing, I had no cause at all to disregard what they taught me. I chose to trust God for myself, but was first taught how that worked from them.

I haven't quite figured out how not to take it a little personally when my children choose to walk away from the faith I modeled in front of them. I know I didn't do Christianity justice every minute of every day, but I sure thought we were doing a good job of showing them how great life could be doing it together with God. 

Why is it so easy for some of us to believe and so hard for others? 

I don't have an answer for that question, but this I do know...I am grateful I believe. And...

"That settles it!" 

It's a natural progression really. If you start with God--and embrace Him as the One and Only described, experienced, and revealed in His Word, the Bible; then choose to believe Him completely, that really does "settle it." 

Why then, do so many of us run about unsettled? 

Perhaps it's because we haven't taken time to sit a bit with "God said it" and "I believe it." 

A few times Jesus chastised his disciples for their lack of faith. Why would He do that? In most of those situations (when they couldn't heal, were afraid of the storm, or simply struggled with believing the impossible) I can so relate to them! 

And when I'm having a hard time believing, I don't like thinking about Jesus rebuking me for my unbelief. I want Him to coddle me and shush me like a colicky baby, and assure me that He understands how hard it is to be me. But instead, I hear His voice exclaiming, "Leighann! Why do you find Me so hard to believe?!" 

"Uh, because You seem to be asleep in my boat, and the waves are crashing and we're about to go under?" 

Perhaps. Perhaps the situation is impossible. And yet this is our statement of faith: 

God said it.

I believe it.

That settles it.

I want to be the kind of person who sits with Jesus in the morning, reading the Bible and listening intently as the Spirit of the Living God pours His truth into my soul. Then, I want to get up from that chair and go about my business of the day, completely relieved of any anxiety, fear, aching grief, angst, or nervous energy wasted on worrying about what might happen next. I want to live my life in peaceful-expectation and hope-filled-anticipation of how tender and loving God's going to be in that very thing for me.

God said it. I believe it. That settles it.