Do you believe that God is? I do not say, Do you believe that there is a God? for in that case I should classify you as an atheist; but, Do you really believe that God is?
This, though apparently a very simple question, is one of great practical importance, and the more we ponder it the more we find it to be so.
Unbelief is natural to us all, and the most advanced believer is ready to own how little he truly and really does believe—how little, that is, his life is influenced by faith in God.
And yet, “the just shall live by faith” is the principle on which all the just do live.
But let us remember that in order to give God pleasure we must have faith—we must believe that He is.
“Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).
How much must depend therefore on that exercise of soul which is called faith; and he in whom faith shines the brightest is the best witness and the most honoured vessel. If you desire to be a power for God in a world which hates Him, you must live in the energy of faith. Never has a saint risen higher than the ordinary rank and file, unless he was personally marked by a faith which believed that God is, and one that diligently sought Him.
Those who, by grace, have done so, stand before us as burning and shining lights, cheering us on our own path, and enabling God to say that even He “was not ashamed to be called their God”! Now faith and revelation are always correlative; that is, according to the measure of the revelation so the character of the testimony that is borne by faith; and therefore faith, in order to be pleasing to God, should be in keeping with, and in full obedience to the revelation given; that is, a Christian, seeing he has a far higher communication, should have also a far higher faith than any preceding saint of olden times. And yet, alas! how poorly we compare with many such.
Hence, if we would please God, we whom His infinite grace has called to accompany our rejected Lord today, and to share in His coming heavenly glories, it certainly becomes us to live in the power of what He has revealed, and in close and abiding contact with Himself. We must believe that He is.
Here is one bit of revelation: “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.” Whose word? The word of God. In this particular we believe that God is. We own Him as Creator. Faith quietly rests when science is in turmoil.
Here is another: “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” To whom did Abel offer? To God. “And God,” we read, “testified of his gifts.” Abel believed that God is. He proved God to be a Saviour.
Again another: “By faith Enoch … was not found, because God had translated him: for he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” Enoch walked with God. Happy man, and he believed that He is. He pleased God, and Proved God to be a sanctifier.
Each of these men had to do with God according to the revelation He deigned to give them. They stand before us on the page of history as confessors and conquerors. The secret of their life was that they believed that God is. How simple, but how important.
Finally, at all times He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. When the soul makes Him its blessed Object, its chosen God, how certain and glorious the reward.
Reader, use diligence in making God your all-commanding Object. Bring Him into the warp and woof of your life—personal, domestic, or any other. Believe that He is.
1. God is Creator.
2. God is Saviour.
3. God is Sanctifier.
4. God is Rewarder. (Hebrews 11:3-6.)
And He has revealed Himself fully to as in His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who has passed through death, and now sits on the right hand of God. May grace be granted each saint to believe that God is.