Beyond Common Sense

Your heart breaks. You hear of another family in trouble. The husband is having an affair. The teen daughter is pregnant. Dad is drinking again, and Mom’s spending binges are out of control.

These scenarios, and others that are much more heartrending, are very real and are being played over and over again across our circles. How? Why? What happened to that seemingly sweet, got-it-all-together family with the cute little kids, beautiful home with all the perks, and six-digit income? They believed in God. No, they didn’t go to church regularly, but they believed in God. No, they really didn’t take much time reading the Bible, but they believed in God. They never thought about having family devotions, but they believed in God.

Years ago, I heard a sermon in which my pastor described the right and wrong view of God. He said that our relationship with God is not like a house with many separate rooms, each representing a part of our lives: work, entertainment, shopping, vacation, family activities, etc. Instead, it is more like a wheel with God at the center, the hub. He is a part of every aspect of our lives, and we consider Him when we make plans about everything: vacation, entertainment, and shopping, etc. He is a part of our family activities and conversations. What does that look like? So glad you asked! Here are some examples:

Mom is shopping, and she is trying to stay in budget. She prays and asks God for wisdom. Dad is seeking new employment and has found the job that is too good to be true. The pay will more than cover the family’s expenses, and the perks are amazing. However, he will be required to work eighty hours a week, six days a week, and he knows he cannot be the husband and father he wants to be if he is continually working that much. The teen daughter has been dating the love of her life for over a year, and the boyfriend wants to take their relationship to a “higher, more serious level.” She really loves him, but isn’t comfortable with his new, hands-on approach.

Unless God is at the hub of the home, all these decisions will be made with the wisdom of the world and the desires of our flesh, and the outcomes will be disastrous. For some reason, we think we can play with the world, live with its rulebook, and not get burned.

We might call the beginning scenarios examples of “Easy Believism.”  They believed in God, but He had no part in their everyday lives. Decisions were made without the guiding hand of the One who has all knowledge and wisdom.

When Jesus told Nicodemus he needed to be born-again, He went on to quote the most familiar verse in the Bible, John 3:16—“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

The Greek word for “believe,” carries a much stronger message than to accept that something is true. Strongs Concordance tells us it means “to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, or place confidence in.” It can also mean, “to trust in Jesus or God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something: saving faith.”

This word is used 248 times in the New Testament, but James 2:19 shows us the seriousness of our belief: “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!” This kind of belief is serious business; it is life-changing and eternal.

Too often, our belief mirrors that of heathen religions. Jesus is put on our god shelf along with all our other gods, like ambition, pride, reputation—generally speaking—ourselves and our ideas of how life should go. God only comes out when we enter that room of the house that is falling apart.

It’s a deadly path, one that our heavenly Father continually warns against in His Word, and one that our archenemy, Satan, uses over and over again. Psalm 128 is just one of many passages where our LORD shows us His way and the blessings that will follow:

1. We will be blessed when we fear the Lord and walk in His ways (v. 1).
2. We will enjoy the “labor of our hands” (v. 2).
3. We will be happy (v. 2).
4. Life will go well (v.2). DISCLAIMER: This doesn’t mean that following Jesus means we will have no worries or troubles, BUT we will avoid the pitfalls this world sets in our paths [self-inflicted because of bad choices], AND we have a heavenly Father who guides us, comforts us, and walks beside us through the storms of life.
5. As wives, we will be fruitful and will provide the right “heart” in our homes (v. 3). (For moms, this is a biggie! Have you ever noticed that in the Trinity, we see the Father and Son. That leaves us, moms, as the spirit of the home! What a responsibility—one that can make ALL the difference!)
6. Our children will grow up and be a blessing “around [our] tables” (v. 3).
7. We will see good not only at home but in our community and nation as well, taking part in caring for others. “The strength of any city lies in its strong family life. The true strength of the family issues from its ordering in the fear of the Lord.” (J. Campbell Morgan)
8. (This one is my favorite!) You will see the fruit of your godly decisions in your grandchildren as well (v. 6).

It takes more than a casual belief in God for all this to happen. It takes a commitment—one that needs help from a local church, sitting regularly under the preaching and teaching of God’s Word and the strengthening fellowship of other believers. It requires diligence in knowing the God of the Universe. It takes a life-changing belief, which our Savior stands ready to give with outstretched, pierced hands.