The Fruit of Belief

The Fruit of Belief (Exodus 4:31)

The Children of Israel spent four hundred years in bondage. Life was getting worse, rather than better. They saw no end to their misery, and hope was in very short supply. Then God showed up! He heard their cries for a deliverer and sent them Moses and Aaron. For the first time in a long time, God’s people had a glimmer of hope.

Upon their arrival in Egypt Aaron and Moses met with the leaders of the Children of Israel. They told them everything God told Moses, and Aaron performed some signs to confirm the message. The leaders knew that God had taken notice of the oppression and affliction under which they were living. As word spread among the people, they, too, believed that God had shown up to help them. Listen to the description of their response as given to us by Moses: “So the people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.” (Exodus 4:31)

Belief and worship go together. As I read these words it occurred to me that we can know something of our belief by the way we worship—or don’t worship. We can assume that the worship the Children of Israel offered God flowed from what they believed. Had they NOT believed, they would not have worshiped. Worship really is the fruit of belief.

So, I asked myself this question: Does my worship adequately reflect what I believe about God? My concern is that the shallowness of our worship in church and in private is a reflection of weak beliefs that won’t really sustain us throughout our lives. Real worship flows from genuine belief. That belief in God and His concern for us that touches us deeply and permanently will move us to bow our heads (and our hearts) in true worship. That worship will focus on God, not ourselves. It will reflect our love for God, not our own preferences and tastes.

Does your belief in God, and mine, move us to bow our heads and worship the true and living God? Anything less gives us reason to question the sincerity of our beliefs and the quality of our worship. We have no better time of the year than Advent to reflect on God’s work in our lives, our trust (belief) in that work and our response to His work in us and for us. I pray that reflection will move us to stronger faith and more genuine worship. God deserves both! -- John Strain is Senior Pastor of First Baptist Toms River

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 13; Hosea 12-14 Revelation 4

Think About This: Satan loves the gullible Christian, who likes sensations and thespectacular; he provides the spectacle and sensation, with which he cankeep them off the true track. Anonymous