“Everything is made to center upon the initial act of “accepting” Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible), and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our spirit.” – The Pursuit of God, AW Tozer
Who would have thought that such a fine line could make all the difference? It’s so subtle it’s hardly noticed. Can you see it? The difference between – I accept Jesus as my savior vs. I believe in Jesus as my savior.
Why is this so hard to detect? When you finally see it, you then know why it makes all the difference in the world for our faith. Let’s take a closer look.
John 3:16
For God So Loved the World
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
There it is. Whoever believes!
Could you accept a gift and still not believe it? Imagine if your enemy handed you a gift for their gratitude towards something, could you see yourself being suspicious as to their real motive even though you accepted the gift? Sure, we do this all the time passing judgment as to why the giver is being so generous. We say things like “I wonder what they are after?”
Now consider using the word “believe”. This word is finite. It’s an act of commitment.
You will believe thereby concluding something is real or not. You cross over, give of yourself thereby, being vulnerable. Belief had to be final. A small but powerful word.
By comparison, using the word accept you still have the option to believe or not. To believe means there is no turning back. There’s only the deciding to no longer believe, which again is final in its nature.
When you believe Christ died for you, it should trigger a pursuit of God which says “Okay God, now what? Show me more what it means to believe in Jesus.” The struggle will be to continue the belief.
Mark 9:24
24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
Satan is more concerned with those who believe that his goal is to cause you to doubt your decision.
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.”
Did you see what he did? He cast doubt on what Eve believed to be true. But then Eve chose to believe Satan. That is why we pray to know God better and seek help with protecting against our unbelief. It matters not that we accept the gift. It matters that we believe in the reason for the gift and the giver of it.
#JustAThought
