Believing is Just the First Step
By Jessica Brodie
While I’ve never been the most athletic sort of person, I do love getting outside and enjoying nature. Especially in the fall and in the spring, lacing up my hiking boots and getting out on a beautiful trail in the middle of nowhere feels amazing in the truest sense of the word. In the spring, lush green leaves are all around me, and tiny flowers hint at fresh beginnings. In autumn, colors surround me, a multitude of reds and oranges and golds all swirling and dancing as I walk, humbled to be there among them. The best part is when there’s a magnificent payoff at the end—a gorgeous waterfall or majestic mountain peak. Standing there at the top, looking around, and remembering the hard work I endured to stand in this very place brings a rush of euphoric gratitude.
Now, “going for a hike” can look like a lot of things. I have some woods outside my house, and if you want to get technical, I can legitimately say that anytime I lace up my shoes and take a walk out there, I’m going for a hike. Or if I get to a trailhead and go a few feet down the path but get tired and stop, I can still technically claim that I went for a hike.
But it’s not the same in my heart. For me, going on a hike means genuinely getting out there, enduring the long-haul. It means experiencing the hard work and eventually the joy of getting to the summit, looking around, and feeling so very blessed. Then later, I walk back down knowing I’ve just had a transformative experience. Because of my time in nature, I’ve changed. I’ve drawn closer to God, my stamina and my heart and lung functioning have increased, and my muscles have gotten stronger.
I’ve had the full experience. I’ve truly been “on a hike.”
Reflecting on this reminds me of our spiritual walk as Christians. Sometimes we believe in Jesus, and are so grateful for his sacrifice on the cross that secured our salvation. We regret our sins, and we want desperately to change and be part of his holy family. We claim the title “Christian,” and maybe we pray, wear a cross, or have a favorite Bible verse.
But then we stop right there. We don’t go any farther.
We get to the door but don’t open it and walk through to experience the full magnitude of God’s kingdom.
It’s like trying to say we went for a hike, but we really only went a few steps into the forest and never made the journey at all, let alone reached the summit.
In Matthew 7, Jesus warned that there will be true disciples and false disciples. He said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23 NIV).
While we are assured of salvation when we genuinely repent and believe in Jesus Christ as our savior and the son of God—and while Christ’s sacrifice was enough to ensure our salvation—there is a big difference between saying “I am a Christian” and genuinely following Jesus.
Jesus called us to believe and repent (Mark 1:15). Believing is one thing. But repenting is honestly and authentically looking at our sinful life, our old ways, and determining that we are not going to do that anymore.
This doesn’t mean we’re not going to make mistakes along the way or that we will be sin-free for the rest of our lives. Human beings are imperfect! But it does mean that we try our hardest to reject the old way. We die to the self when we are born again in Jesus (Romans 6:4-8). We reject the old way and embrace the new. I love that verse from 2 Corinthians 5:17 reminding us that we are a new creation in Christ. That is what we are!
But believing is just the first step. It’s like walking to a house and opening the door. But when you walk inside that house, then what happens?
When we fall in love with Christ, we become transformed. This means we start to crave his way more than the world’s way. Sometimes this happens all of a sudden, but sometimes it takes a bit of time.
Our transformation involves faith and action. It involves reading God’s word, setting our sights on him, being in dialogue with the Lord constantly, ultimately turning everything in our lives over to him so that he guides our steps. We make a steady shift toward a lifestyle of holiness. We do certain things that feed the Holy Spirit within us, such as gathering with other Christian believers, or letting the fruits of the spirit show so those around us can see the transformation in our hearts and want that for themselves, too. We become representatives of Jesus Christ and the way we live our lives.
Our salvation is not at all dependent on what we do. But what we do and how we live our lives is a good indicator of where our heart is. A heart transformed is a heart that reflects compassion and kindness and patience and all of those things God desires.
In this world today, there are so many things that compete for our attention. There are things that are trying so hard—things orchestrated by the enemy, the evil one—that are trying to steal the Truth from our soul and the Holy Spirit right out of us. They don’t want us to live a life transformed. They want us to believe for a time and then stop caring and grow cold. They want us not to grow and be reborn into God’s holy kingdom.
I think about the Parable of the Sower that Jesus taught in Luke 8:1-15. Seeds fell along the path but were eaten, fell on rocky ground but withered without moisture, and fell among thorns but suffocated. Only the seed that fell on good soil yielded a crop. Those seeds are like God’s word—not everyone who hears it bears fruit.
I want to be that good soil. I don’t want God’s word to be eaten up by the birds on the path or choked by the thorns that represent the cares of this world. For me, believing has taken root way down deep in my soul, and I try my hardest to water and cultivate that soil so it produces good fruit for God’s kingdom.
Don’t be that person who takes a few steps down the trail and calls it a day, claiming they went hiking. That’s not hiking. That’s only starting the trail.
Believing is the first step. Walk the journey. That is true Christianity.
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