My car has high performance tires. When purchasing it I gave no thought to the type of tires it had. I simply liked the way the car felt when I drove it. Come to find out, the feeling I liked was largely due to the high performance tires. I’ve also discovered other benefits. In a major ice storm, I was able to safely navigate treacherous roads while other cars slipped off the road. In drenching rains, I don’t hydroplane; on steep and curvy roads, I hold safely to the path.
Believing the Word of God is like driving with a set of high performance tires. No matter the conditions, relying upon God’s Word enables us to travel through all kinds of circumstances, steady and secure. Nevertheless, high performance tires can be punctured. Lies from the enemy are like nails that flatten our tires. They have an uncanny ability to stop us dead in our tracks, even when we simply encounter one strategically placed hazard. Sometimes, we’re not even aware that we’ve been “nailed” until we realize that we’re limping along.
I ran over a “nail” like that recently. It completely deflated my peace. It wounded my heart. I’m amazed at how quickly it happened. But lies are like that. Whether they come as sharp objects of warfare or we drive over them carelessly, lies rupture and deflate our peace and joy. They turn our focus from God and others to “it’s all about me.”
To live a life that glorifies God, it is imperative that we believe Him. Consider what Jesus said when Satan tempted Him to believe and act on lies:
“It is written, ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4).
Jesus was quoting Moses who, speaking for God, also said to the Israelites:
“Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today so that you may live and increase and possess the land that the Lord has promised on oath to your forefathers” (Deuteronomy 8:1).
They sought a physical land, one with God’s protection and abundant provision. As New Covenant believers, our promised land is freedom, the freedom we have as we live in Christ. No wonder Jesus also said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). The result of believing God is freedom. We place ourselves in unnecessary bondage every time we believe a lie. Satan’s primary line of attack is the lie that God cannot be trusted. He used that in the Garden of Eden, and continues to do so today.
Way #8 of 52 Ways to Glorify God is simple, but deeply profound and requires a constant pursuit and battle:
Believe God!
To believe God we have to KNOW God’s Word. We have to study it, meditate on it, and memorize it. We must ask God to take His Word from an initial intellectual knowledge and implant it, through revelation, deep within our hearts.
In the “ways” ahead, we’ll get more specific about areas in which we must believe God. For this one, I challenge you to consider the whole of God’s Word as something to be passionately embraced, something you must resolve to know and fight to believe. Take a minute and profess: I can’t live only on food today; I must live on the words of God, for:
“Every word of God is flawless!” Proverbs 30:5
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