Pam Padgett ... teacher
Hebrews 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
We're told to take heed ... pay close attention and give careful notice ... to whether we have unbelief in our hearts.
After reading this verse, I stopped and asked God to help me examine
myself. Do I really believe in God and what He has said? I was
reminded of various scriptures and considered whether I really believe
each of these, whether I was doing what was instructed in them, whether
there is evidence in my life that I believe what we're told.
John 6:28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
Jesus is the Word ... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
We believe in Him as we believe each word brought to us by the Holy Spirit. This is the work of God we've been given to do.
We can judge whether we believe by what we do with the word. When we
believe it, we act according to that word. And we will end up being changed in
some way, conformed to that word.
For example, if we believe what we're told in Romans 3, we will believe
that the blood of Jesus has paid for our sins and we will not do things
to try to pay for our sins ourselves.
Romans 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
If we believe what we're told in Proverbs 3, we will try to turn to God
with each matter, trusting Him to show us what to do, rather than trying to work out in our own minds what to
do.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not
unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he
shall direct thy paths.
James explains that we deceive ourselves if we hear the word, but don't
act according to it.
James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and
not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway
forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the
perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful
hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.