Keep Believing in God

When I was in year 2 at a private school we learned to write in cursive and the multiplication table up to 12.  The following year I began attending a local public school where students in year 3 were taught these for the first time!  I remember the teacher being skeptical when I told her I already learned to write in cursive and she had me come up to the board to demonstrate my skill or experience public humiliation.  I ended up being her "assistant" for that portion of the class in the following months.

The style of schooling I was exposed to in both a private and public setting was to learn the basics and then move onto something new.  Students are taught to add and subtract, then multiply and divide, and then incorporate what they have already learned into problems with fractions and decimals.  There comes a time when you have taken your last formal maths course and graduate from school, likely pleased that season of life is now complete.  This concept of taking a class, learning and finishing the work can seep into the Christian life and lead us to believe once we learn facts from the Bible or comprehend the basics of the Gospel we grow up, graduate and move to our chosen electives of interest--like prophecy, eschatology and spiritual gifts!

One thing we must learn and be continually reminded of is knowing does not mean we are doing.  The ability to define sanctification does not mean we are embracing it daily; to be able to turn to passages that exhort us to forgive others does not mean we are free of resentment and bitterness towards people we know.  We may have come to Jesus and placed our faith in Him as young children, but this does not mean we are trusting Him today.  With every moment God provides new opportunities to believe and rely upon Him like never before, so we can exercise the most basic and fundamental aspects of Christian faith.  There are many examples in scripture of this, and Daniel comes to mind.  He was an intelligent man brought from Jerusalem and trained in the language and laws of the Babylonians and then was appointed to a high-ranking leadership role in the Median and Persian empire as well.

Though Daniel had been brought from his city, people and culture, he continued to pray three times a day to the almighty God.  He did this even when legislation passed that forbade praying to anyone but the king for 30 days under punishment of death.  Daniel had never faced a situation like this before.  He didn't need to know anything new or require a fresh revelation from God to continue seeking the LORD he served in prayer and thanksgiving.  Daniel was arrested and thrown into the lion's den, and God miraculously preserved his life from the ravenous beasts.  Daniel 6:23 reads, "Then the king was exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him, because he believed in his God."  Daniel was hauled to safety unhurt and was delivered because "he believed in his God," the living God who created all things, knows everyone who trusts Him and is a Saviour.

Daniel believed in his God when he prayed three times a day in his own room, and he also believed in his God when he was thrown to the lions--a situation he had never before experienced.  His fellow rulers were like lions, prowling around and stalking him as prey, but God delivered Daniel from their schemes because he believed in his God.  Belief in God is a simple concept a child can understand, but we are called to keep believing God in everyday situations and in unprecedented ones like being thrown into a burning furnace or a den of hungry lions.  The fact Daniel trusted God in the lion's den did not guarantee he would trust God in trivial matters later that morning or afternoon.  Belief in God isn't something we do and move on from doing because it is impossible to grow spiritually or be pleasing to God without exercising it.  To advance in knowledge while neglecting simple belief in God means we are regressing, not progressing.