Disease of Unbelief

2 Chron. 7:14
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn form their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Believe God. Just believe what He says. That seems too simple. It has already been said. We all know that this is what is we should be doing; don’t we? Believe God. Perhaps it is too simple for words to express or it is too plain for our ever searching hearts to crave. There are many ways and have been many words spent to express this serious, life saving direction from God. It is simple, yet at times seems so elusive. It is easy and childish yet it can accomplish all things that God desires. To believe God is big and it is best.

There are those who do not believe in Jesus and so cannot be saved. There are those who claim to believe in Jesus and yet do not believe God on certain points. So on one hand we have unbelievers and on the other hand we have believers who don’t believe. What is the difference? Unbelievers have been deceived and believe lies from Satan and because of their unbelief they cannot be saved. For the believer temptations to disbelieve God will always come, but we overcome by God’s favor and power in His grace in Jesus. At least we ought to be overcoming. God desires for us to overcome and has given us all we need to overcome. Overcoming unbelief is to be our lives work; it will lead to all other work in Christ’s kingdom.

God will not abide with unbelief. It is not just a little problem, it is a disease. It is taking lives. We who belong to Jesus are believers – that would be those who believe. At any place in God’s word that He shows us we do not believe Him, we must take up battle. We must side with Jesus against our flesh and the enemy and at times other people. Unbelief cannot be left alone – it does not just go away by itself but it grows. God will not have it. All of God’s word is for all of God’s children. We all have faith - the ability to believe – for everything that God is pleased to bring and do in our lives. There are not some things for only some Christians to believe. Jesus reigns and lives and dies for all. His Spirit is in all and works through all.

We must stop treating unbelief like acne; we all get it a little and some get it a lot and we mostly just grow out of it. It is more like cancer and it is not dormant. God will sweep away all unbelief from the earth. We need to part ways with it or be swept away with it. “Oh, I do believe”, you say. Believe what? If you believed God you would not be afraid, you would not be discouraged, you would not be in sin. So do fear and discouragement and sin never come? Yes, they come. But we tend to treat them like scraped knees and paper cuts. They are not minor injuries or blemishes; they are symptoms of disease, like cancer. When we see the symptoms of the disease we must treat it immediately. It must be burnt out by Jesus with His words applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who lives in you.

All that surfaces from us is a symptom of our inner health or lack of. Anxiety, fear, sinful habits, dismay, weariness of spirit, ungodly speech, joylessness, prayerlessness are – along with many other things – symptoms of unbelief. We need to open our eyes to the sickness and admit ourselves for treatment. That is all that is required of us.

We have made great progress in admitting our short comings to one another. We have practically made a religion out of it. We should not then, hide our wounds and weaknesses.
But sharing our neediness with others merely for the sake of making ourselves vulnerable before others does no good if we do not see it for what it is and take it where it belongs. If your liver stops working properly because of disease; all the sympathy and understanding in the world will do nothing for you. Standing in a room of people with the same disease may make you feel better but it won’t heal you. We have to do more than simply acknowledge the problem. We need to see it as deadly and see God for healing. Acknowledging that unbelief is a real health problem in a person’s life is a big step, but for some; it is time to move on from there to the hospital. If all we do is share and compare our symptoms, we may enjoy togetherness and tender human bonds, but we will not be healed. The healing of our unbelief will only come from Jesus. We must go to Him often and with full disclosure of all the symptoms we experience. Will you be healed?