Can everyone receive faith?
Jesus says in Matthew 23:37, “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
Jesus was looking for their willingness when He wanted to gather the people of Israel, but many were not willing – they did not want to believe.
The same is true today. In His mercy, Jesus invites us through God’s Word to come to Him, but the question is if we are willing to believe it.
You do not need to be clever to have faith or to believe; and faith is not just given to a few very special spiritual people. Each one of us can receive faith and make a decision to live by it. Faith is about obedience, faith means that we do what God tells us to do. (Romans 1:5 and 16:26.)
But why is it so difficult to believe?
We can read what the Bible tells us about the people of Israel in the wilderness. God had promised them the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. They had experienced God’s miracles and He had helped them many times; but they were lost in the wilderness for forty years. Only two of those who left Egypt entered the land. Everyone else over 20 years of age died without ever entering the Promised Land, because they did not believe. (Hebrews 3:19.) They didn’t believe that God would help them to conquer the land of Canaan.
Why didn’t they believe that God would fulfil His promise?
It must have been their unwillingness to fight against the enemies in the land who seemed too strong for them; they did not want to fight and suffer in order to receive what God had promised them.
If I choose to believe that God’s Word is true, I must be willing to do what is written in the Word. True faith means that I do what is written in God’s Word, and here I need to be willing to obey and never draw back. This will bring me into “battles” as I give up my own will in order to do God’s will. But what I will later receive as a reward for my faithfulness is much greater, as it’s written in Revelation 3:21, “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
For many people, it may seem foolish to say that you simply believe that a promise will be fulfilled for you. But the truth is that a real faith in this verse can lead you to a happy life in hope of eternal glory with Jesus.
The only question is if I’m willing to believe and willing to obey!
I can make the decision right now. It can begin with a simple prayer, “Dear God, help me to believe in You.”
God is enthusiastic when people make such decisions to believe in Him and in what He has promised. He will strengthen your will to do the good. The more you obey His word, the stronger your faith becomes so that it becomes easier and easier to be obedient to Him.
