TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL PASSAGE

DEVOTIONAL

by Sandra Chua

“Believe” is such a strong word. A lot of things happen when we believe, and in the same way, a lot of things don’t.

My husband sent me a message with a link last February. The link was entitled “World of Winners.” It says Cathay Pacific Airways was giving out free airplane tickets. I immediately dismissed it as a scam. Many of those who “believed” and clicked the link received an email a few weeks after they had won a free ticket to Hong Kong. 

Abram was seventy-five years old when God told him to leave his country and family to settle in a new land that God promised to give him. He obeyed promptly. Settling by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, he had waited quite some years for God’s promise. In a vision,  God blesses him again, probably to assure his servant. Abram innocently asks, “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” God assures Abram that he will have a biological son and confirms his promise of descendants as numerous as the stars in the skies. At that point, Abram believed what God had said, and God counted it as righteousness.

As Christians, the rules have not changed. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Mark 16:15-16 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” We are still saved by faith; nothing has changed. Just like Abram, all he had to do was believe. For those who do not believe, condemnation awaits. 

REFLECTION

Have you been counted as righteous in God’s sight? By what merits? If your answer is other than believing, you are nullifying the grace of God. For if righteousness can be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.

PRAYER

I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; He descended into hell; on the third day, He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there, He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.

Amen.