“Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.”
— Mark 11:23 (CSB)
For me to have God’s kind of faith, I must know who I am according to His word. I must see myself as He sees me. I have to gather evidence to support God’s picture of me.
Only when I believe in my heart that I am who God says I am do I have the capability to know that what I say will come true. All of us know that if God says something it will come true, but we are not always convinced that if we say it, it will happen.
No matter what we do, we can never make ourselves worthy or deserving of righteousness. It is a gift, but like all gifts, each of us has to accept it. Then we have to learn to walk in our new identity.
In the past, I thought I had to work up enough will power to “change”, but when I do that, I am saying I am not the new person God says I am. Change puts everything on me, but when I know I am no longer that old person because that person is dead, I learn to walk in the righteous person I now am. It is a process and doesn’t happen magically.
Being righteous means that I am in harmony with the Father. I believe He is who He says He is and I believe I am who He says I am. Righteousness can not be earned, it is a gift. When my daddy gave me a white Corvair my senior year in college, I didn’t say, “Oh, I can’t accept that; I don’t deserve it”. No, I jumped up and down hugging him and thanking him. And boy, did I enjoy my new car. I believed it was mine, received it and drove it.
That’s what Father God wants from us – to believe, receive and enjoy his gift of righteousness. This does not mean that I do everything right and never make a mistake, but that sin has no control over me unless I allow it. I am set free from bad attitudes, anger, depression, worry, etc. So when I do sin, I remind myself that I am not that person anymore.
You must see, in your imagination, pictures of the new you!
We need strong evidence for the heart to believe. Evidence that has emotion attached to it.
“Gather evidence to establish the beliefs of your heart.”
The Heart Dictates Actions