“Believe” is a popular signage today. At Christmas it’s used to encourage our child-like anticipation. Sometimes we are trying to say “be wishful” which isn’t bad. But Jesus originated the saying when He walked the earth and was encouraging people to trust Him.
In Mark 9:23 “Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”
Let’s look at the sections of this statement in more detail.
All things
All things includes everything. Relationship things and health things and finance things and wisdom things are all included. Never once do we see Jesus turning someone away to say “Sorry Frank, your problem is too much and there’s no solution. Go to the back of the line.” If someone failed to receive from Jesus it was because they failed to receive- not that Jesus failed to give.
Possible
Possible comes from the Greek Word dunata which means power, strength, ability and the strength of a whole army is at your disposal. Remember the God who made the world with words can change your world with His Word. Remember the God who loved you when you didn’t even care about Him still gave to you. When a person is believing God, it opens up the army of God’s resources to you- healing, provision, wisdom, strength.
Him that believes- is the condition for the possibility.
The tense of the verb “believeth” is one of active expectation. It is in the present tense and also ongoing tense. It doesn’t indicate that you once believed or someday will believe, but that right now you choose to believe. Young’s Translation makes it clearer:
Mark 9:23 “ And Jesus said to him, …..all things are possible to the one that is believing”
- Believing is active expectation. When you pray you believe and expect the answer.
- Believing is present tense and ongoing and has to be maintained and nurtured or it will lose its effectiveness.
- Are you believing? Or have you stopped believing at some point?
- We are believers and that’s what we are to do until we die or Jesus returns
So what do you do when it’s hard to believe?
- Double up on what God says in His Word about your situation.
- Replace those thoughts of “I can’t” with the “I cans” of Scripture.
- Turn your eyes from your lack to His provision.
- Start to praise God for the answer before you see it
