So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ~1 John 4:16, ESV (emp mine)

Quick Sip

I read this verse anew a few days ago. I hadn’t noticed the believe part before. Knowing God’s love for us is one thing. Believing is taking it a step further. I can know airplane travel is safe, but believing it means riding on a plane and putting my trust in the pilot.

I can know of God’s love for me, but believing means that I trust him to take care of me even when I can’t see. I can know he loves me, but believing mean that I put my stress and worry aside to follow where he leads.

Long Drink

This concept is so very hard for me. I sit here in the middle of suitcases and boxes and clothes all waiting on me to pack them so we can go “home.” But I am so stressed! When we land, I have no idea where home will be.

I feel just like the Israelites. God has just shown up big time in the sell of our house. He moved mountains and did what seemed impossible, and yet, now that I’m facing another mountain, I’m scared to death and failing to trust to believe his love for me.

Ironically, in my Busy Mom’s Prayer Guide the verse on the next page following 1 John 4:16 was Phil. 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” It is a good reminder that believing God also means laying my worry and stress aside. It means thanking him for his provision and remembering how he has come through in the past. And believing he can and will come through again.

Does he always come through in just the way I hope or anticipate? No. Absolutely not. He’s not a genie in a bottle. But like me with my kids, he does always have my best interest in mind and can do “far more abundantly than all that we can ask or think”1.

1 Ephesians 3:20