We all would admit we need to pray more. It sounds spiritual and convicting. And sometimes it is. Many of us, from time to time, need a good swift kick in our spiritual backsides. But more often than not, at least in my case, what I mean when I say I need to pray more isn’t at all spiritual. It looks like a frantic and anxious digging around in my flesh, all upset and guilty that I don’t look as shiny as I want to. No wonder. When we look at ourselves and to ourselves, we see a wasteland of weakness and unmet expectations.
When you read John’s gospel you see that Jesus is calling people to a life of belief. The next time you read John, pay attention to how many times the word ‘believe’ is used. It’s everywhere. But what does believing mean?
Believing means coming to Jesus.
Believing isn’t just a one time thing. It’s continuous. If it weren’t, Jesus wouldn’t have described himself as the living bread which we are invited to feed upon forever. (John 6:48-58) Nor would he have swung wide the invitation to come to him and drink from the living water. (John 7:37-39)
Why would Jesus equate belief with eating and drinking? Just like we need to keep eating and drinking to sustain ourselves physically, we need to keep believing, keep coming to Jesus to sustain ourselves spiritually. What is fed in the act of believing is not the body, but the soul — our deep soul-hunger is satiated and our never-ending soul-thirst is quenched when we come to Jesus.
John Piper, in a sermon on John 6 explains this well when he says:
“Believing is not even a state of satisfaction in Christ or a state of pleasure in Christ. Rather, John wants to emphasize that we never put down the cup of living water, as though we’d had enough. We never lay aside the loaf of heaven’s bread, as though we were stuffed. “Believing” doesn’t do that. Believing is receiving constantly, and coming constantly. Christ is ever giving himself as drink and food for our souls. We are ever putting our lips to the cup, and our tongue to the bread. Life in Christ is like a branch in a vine, not like a full cup sitting on a table beside a full pitcher. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit” (John 15:5). Believing is what a branch does in the vine. It drinks. It eats. It never stops. It abides. Forever.“
Belief in Jesus isn’t something I did once upon a time in December of 1991 when I was converted. Belief is the continual coming to Jesus and finding in him everything I need. If I see a lack in my own life, it makes no sense to search for the answer in myself. But in Christ there is an infinite and free reservoir of grace and mercy. We should not be ashamed to come to him. He freely invites us to partake of these riches.
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16
Women Studying the Word 