Have you heard of Jesus?
My guess is that you have. It seems that everyone has at least heard the name, as associated with Christianity. I’m probably very wrong about that because there are many regions of the world I have not visited, probably with vast stretches of land where the inhabitants have never heard His name.
But, if you’re reading this, you’ve probably at least heard of Jesus. He’s quite famous.
Even if you haven’t heard about Jesus, the Bible says the heavens and creation speak to us about God. See Psalms 19:1-4 CSB.
But what does it take to get from hearing to faith?
Does it depend on the exact message? Or the messenger? A bit of both?
I think that a person immediately has “faith” when they hear a story. They either believe it, which is faith, or they don’t, which is also faith.
When someone tells me the sky is green, I look up, see that it is blue, and have faith that their story is wrong. I have faith that everything else they tell me will be wrong too.
Not everything is as easy to verify as the sky color though, so how do I discern the truth? How do I come up with my faith?
The Bible says that this is where the Holy Spirit comes in. He speaks to the heart of each person who hears about Jesus.
But Christians, the messengers, also play a very important role.
If someone tells Jane that Jesus is good and loves her, but she looks around at His followers and sees nothing but hatred, judgment, hypocrisy, and fear, she will not believe the story.
However, if she sees love, generosity, humility, and joy among His followers, that will go a long way toward building her faith in the truth of Jesus as loving Savior.
Dear God,
Please remind me how my actions affect other people’s beliefs about you. I know you are loving and holy and beautiful and good. I’m sorry for the things I do that fly in the face of that as your follower. Guide me in how to talk about you and live out my faith with joy and love.
CamDevo 