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The Work of God

             Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:29)

Have you ever tried to believe? Sometimes, we find ourselves in circumstances in which we think (or are told) that if we just had enough faith or believed a little more, everything would work out. We are disappointed when we don’t get what we want, and either walk away from God or punish ourselves for not being good enough.

In today’s verse, Jesus is quoted as saying that the work of God is …to believe in the one he has sent. One way to understand this is that believing is the work or task that we must accomplish. We should work on our belief. It’s foolish to accept just any old claim without a proper measure of investigation, though quite often, we’re content to do so.

A second understanding for the same statement is that it is God’s work to produce belief in the one he has sent in us. He makes it clearer a short time later in the same chapter:

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:44) 

That should settle it, right? It’s all God’s job.  If we seem to fail to believe as we are supposed to, it’s His fault. If that’s the case, then your failure to get the people in your life to do what you want is entirely your fault. If your children do not grow up to be perfect members of society, it’s your fault. And those abusive parents who do unspeakable things to their children, but the children turn out to be good people – do we claim the abusive parent was responsible? Certainly, both good and horrific parents influence their children, but the children also have some say in the matter, just as we do.

Yes, God could give us no choice about becoming His children. I believe there are people who aren’t given a choice. But it’s a mistake to assume that God’s drawing us is like his shooting us with a rifle. There are times when it may be, but it can also by like the rain, falling on everyone in the area. Just because you don’t notice Him doesn’t mean He’s not at work. 

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