"Believe!"

 "And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him." (John 9:38 KJV) 

  "I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done. I will be filled with joy because of you. I will sing praises to your name, O Most High." (Psalm 9:1-2 NLT)

 I seldom feel as though I am unprotected, but when I do, it is usually not because of a lack of faith. If you have been walking with the Lord for any length of time, then you should understand where I am coming from, because we all know that feeling of unprotection is caused by unconfessed sin or a hard heart. 

 That said, when I am in that state of feeling unprotected, it is only an issue with me, not because God's hand of protection has been lifted off of my life. God will take care of His children, no matter what; but sometimes, His protection involves a little correction, in order to get us back in fellowship with His love and will for our life. 

 Basically, that is really what it means to believe in God! We don't just believe that He is, and even that He does this or that; but we believe that He loves us, more than we even love ourselves! How can that be? If I commit sins against Him, is that because I love myself more than Him? Yes! Sorry to say, but there are times when I do not love Him as I should. 

 Remarkably, God still loves me, even in those moments of my rebellion: He never stops loving us! When God says, "I do not change!" He actually means that He does not change! He does not give us a Gift, and then take it back because we have done something wrong! That is not GOD! God's love is based upon one thing, and one thing only: He loves you and wants you to believe that He loves you! 

 Now then, since we have established that, we need to make our lives reflect that which we believe. In other words, if you believe that God loves you, even more than you could possibly love yourself, then you must also believe that He knows best what you need; not what we want, because we ourselves don't really know what is best for self! 

 I have this dog, that I love; his name is Buddy, and he constantly eats stuff that shouldn't eat. You would think by now, as he is pretty much an adult, that he would understand that I am trying to do what is best for him when I tell him, "No, don't eat that!" But he continually thinks that I am trying to take something from him, that he wants...

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. We know we love God's children if we love God and obey his commandments. Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God." (1 John 5:1-5 NLT)