But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
Job 16:5 (NIV)
| Root of
Disobedience by Cathy Vinson |
If we were asked what the opposite of belief was, what would we say? We might easily answer unbelief or doubt. This would be true, but more accurately the negation of belief is disobedience. In Scripture, belief means to "to be persuaded of, to be convinced of." When you negate this, you actually get the word we translate "disobedience." It means "the condition of being unpersuadable, denotes obstinacy, obstinate rejection of the will of God." We can concur that disobedience is in itself being unpersuadable about God's character. It makes sense that "unless I firmly believe God's love for me is unchanging and that His ways are good and righteous, I cannot wholly trust Him...The degree to which I know and believe in God's character is the degree to which I can and will trust Him...and consequently obey Him."* In God's eyes belief has to do with obedience. We can see the interchanging of obedience and belief in the following verses..."See to it brothers, that none of you has a SINFUL, UNBELIEVING heart that TURNS from the living God...with whom was He angry?...with those who SINNED...And to whom did God swear that they would never enter His rest if not to those who DISOBEYED? So we see that they were not able to enter because of their UNBELIEF" (Heb 3:17-19) (see also Heb 4:2 and 6). Understanding may help us deal with disobedience at its roots. Stacey Padrick* (quoted above) writes, "Disbelief often leads to disobedience. Therefore, when I confess sin in my life...I ask Christ to shine His light upon my thoughts and help me discern the lies I've been believing...I must renounce my RESISTANCE to Scriptural truth...I take time to examine the thought processes that PRECEDED my disobedience." *Freelance writer for "Discipleship Journal" |
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| For we
also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was
of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. It still
remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to
them did not go in, because of their disobedience. (Hebrews 4:2,6) |
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