Salad Bowl Philosophy Part 2

Victorious Christian living. A great concept and I believe in it—but I don’t understand it very well so it’s residing in my “spiritual salad bowl.” In my last post I mentioned Beth Moore’s book, “Believing God.” I started reading her book and realized it contained such good “meaty” concepts that I needed to share it with Dean. So as we have time to sit down together in the morning—which hasn’t been easy recently since we have been such gad-abouts—I read him a chapter.  

In Chapter 1, Beth asks the question:  “Is your belief system working?” This could be a very uncomfortable process if I’m being honest. I have to ask myself, am I succeeding in this Christian life or am I just getting by? Do I see any evidence of God’s power in my life? 

She writes, “Faith is the only thing that will close the gap between our theology and our reality,” and further explains that faith or belief isn’t just something we have but something we do. She uses her Greek instructor’s explanation of the word, “believe” (see Ephesians 1:9) as a present active participle verb. If the explanation stopped there, I would be clueless, but her teacher went on to explain, “Think of using the word, ‘continually’ preceding your verb.” In other words, the scripture means “continually believing God.”

Now this is the awesome point I’m heading for. In Ephesians 1:18-20, Paul is praying for the Ephesians (and us) that we might know “his [God’s] incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his [God’s] mighty strength which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead.”

And guess what! The word, believe, in this spot is a present active participle verb. That kind of power is beyond anything I can try to describe and God wants me to continually believe He can do what He says He can do and be Who He says He is. That type of  present participle faith/belief can certainly clear away my disconnect between being a victorious Christian and just getting by. That concept is no longer in the salad bowl. Now all I have to d--is do it.