This morning, me and two of my boys are watching The Empire Strikes Back…
I happened to walk back into the room right as Luke was in the swamp with Yoda. Yoda was moving the x-wing fighter out of the swamp and onto land. After this, Luke looks at Yoda and, surprised that a small creature could move a giant spaceship, says, “I don’t believe it!!” To which Yoda responds, “That is why you fail…”
How many times do we as Christians fail for the same reason? We go to church and listen to sermons week after week. We study the Bible trying to understand what God’s will is for our lives. We have no shortage of knowledge, but having knowledge does to equate to belief.
To truly believe something, is to both know and to experience it to the point that you believe beyond a shadow of a doubt…
James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote that Abraham was an example of this type of belief. It was his faith and his action that combined to both confirm and prove His absolute trust in God…
You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. (James 2:20-24 NIV)
Luke did not fully believe in the strength of the force because he had very little experience with the force itself. How many Christians know a whole bunch about God and “think” they believe but are lacking the action which is the true evidence of a truly faithful heart.
