Increase Belief
Jack Heimbigner
"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." - C.S. Lewis
Jesus answered them, “ Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”?But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scriptures and the words that Jesus had spoken. — John 2: 19–22
In the early years of my faith, I learned so many things about God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, the Bible, etc. I listened to every sermon I could, read my Bible extensively, and had as many conversations with people about my faith as I could.
I had stepped into the land of discipleship with Jesus.
Soon, I was hitting the information overload stage of my faith. I was taking in so much new information that I was unable to understand it all.
Much like the disciples of Jesus’s time, I was beginning to learn something and have no idea what it meant or how to apply it. And at first, this was very frustrating.
However, after some encouragement, I realized there would be things I wouldn’t understand right away. These would be discrepancies in the Bible or theologies which were polar opposites of each other.
And I didn’t really know how to balance these out. I was given typical advice:
“Pray about it. See what Jesus says. Keep reading your Bible.”
While these were all good pieces of advice, it turned out what I really needed was time.
John 2: Then They Believed
In John’s gospel, this exchange with the Jewish authorities is written as though it happened near the beginning of Jesus’s ministry on earth. And so while the disciples were taking in a lot of what they were being taught, and believing much of it. They clearly were learning things they didn’t understand.
In this section of scripture, we find out that they saw this exchange between Jesus and the Jewish authorities and didn’t actually understand what it meant. In fact, they didn’t understand until after Jesus had died and was raised from the dead.
If this happened early in Jesus’s ministry, that would have been two to three years later when they finally understood what this exchange meant.
The interesting thing here is it didn’t keep them from believing at the time.
They stored it away and continued to follow this rabbi. And sure enough, when his death and resurrection was completed, they understood and it?INCREASED?their faith.
They believed later because of something that happened years ago.
Jesus said something.
And while they didn’t understand it in the present, they would later believe. And that belief would propel them into a deeper understanding of who Jesus was and why he had come.
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When we believe, we will experience seasons of deepening faith.
Time Helps Increase Our Faith
Early on in my faith, I learned a lot about spiritual gifts. You know the ones: speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing, and special words for people. For years I stored that information away because I didn’t really understand what it meant.
And then, nearly 12 years later, I started to see those gifts in action in my faith and my church community. And what happened, was understanding how they can build up the church and draw us closer to God.
It increased my faith.
And yet, it didn’t do this until 12 years later!
When we believe, we will go through seasons of increased belief.
We will learn and understand at exponential rates. And other times, we will learn only to understand later in life.
And I believe this is for a reason. God wants us to grow at his timing. Sometimes, we need time to register and understand something before it can increase our faith.
And when we can learn to be okay with this, it will help prepare us for the next thing we learn but do not understand right away.
Next Steps:
Respond:
If you read something in chapter two that raises questions, share them in the responses below. If there is something that stands out to you and might help someone else, be sure to share it too!
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Check out my last article: The Beginning is the Beginning