Belief

I just returned from Billy Graham’s Cove, outside of Asheville, North Carolina. It was breathtakingly beautiful with the Fall colours covering the mountains. My father and I were leading a spiritual leadership conference for pastors. I had never been there before. That is where Billy Graham’s library is housed. I met Billy Graham’s grandson, William (Will) Graham IV who is now working at the Cove. I enjoyed walking down the hallways and viewing the pictures of the international crusades Graham led over the decades of his ministry. The entire complex is an inspiring reminder of what a simple trust in God can accomplish.

Billy Graham’s grandson told me Billy is suffering the effects of old age. It reminded me that even the greatest of God’s servants eventually pass from the scene and on to their reward. The question that is always raised when God uses someone mightily for His purposes is: why doesn’t God use more people that way? Why are the Billy Grahams or Henry Blackabys the great exceptions rather than the rule? Why are not more people being used powerfully by God? We live in a day when there is a desperate need for mighty men and women of God. Yet despite the fact many Christian leaders speak of God’s power, it is often not in evidence in the church. It was Duncan Campbell, the great Scottish revivalist who asked: “How is it that while we make such great claims for the power of the Gospel, we see so little of the supernatural in operation?”

I have been fascinated by the exchange Jesus had with a desperate father in Mark 9:23-24:

Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

Jesus was clear: “all things are possible to him who believes.” Some of us may need to be like the desperate father and say, “Lord, in my head I know you are all-powerful, but in my heart I am having my doubts. Help me not to doubt any more!” It is not what we say that is the best evidence of what we believe. It is what we do. The way we are living and serving God may indicate we do not believe that with God all things are possible. If so, we are only a desperate prayer away from seeing God do a fresh new work in our lives..

Reading

I love to read biographies. I enjoy reading about people whose lives made a difference. I like reading about religious, political and military leaders. I have tried to read a biography on every American president and Canadian Prime Minister (I am still looking for some). Recently I read presidential biographies on James Buchanan and Chester Alan Arthur, the 15th and 21st presidents of the United States. Most people know very little about either one. Buchanan presided over the nation until the election of Abraham Lincoln. Arthur was unexpectedly thrust into the Oval Office after the assassination of James Garfield. Both of these men, holding the most powerful office in the nation, had a tremendous opportunity to accomplish enormous good. Buchanan was unable to solve his nation’s problems and handed his successor a badly divided nation. Almost no one knows what Chester Arthur accomplished. Both had enormous opportunity. Neither rose to the challenge.

As I read of these two men I wondered what could be said of my life. I am a child of the King. All the resources of heaven have been made available to me in service to my King. How tragic it would be to come to the end of my life after having had such enormous potential only to accomplish little. The final chapter has already been written for Buchanan and Arthur. I pray that, like the father in Mark chapter 9, God will help me in whatever areas of my life I have been struggling to believe, so God will do a mighty work through my life, for His glory.

Posted by Richard Blackaby at 8:59 am