Hosanna Restoration Church

Can a person believe and not be a believer? Or can a person be a believer and not believe? It sounds like word games, but it really is not. Everyone believes something. Often time’s people talk in terms of believers and non-believers and in Christianese that means either believing in Christ or not believing in Christ, but not everyone speaks that language!

The same is true when we speak of faith. Everyone has faith in something even if it is faith in nothing. Some have more faith in the power of the devil than they do in the power of God. In the end, it really does boil down to what we are convinced of. We have all heard or said things like, “That convinced me” or “I am not convinced” or “You will have to do something to convince me.”

Here, Paul tells the folks that he is convinced that they are full of goodness and that they know everything he is telling them well enough to teach others, but they will benefit from a reminder. So perhaps this is a reminder of the importance of being convinced concerning the things of God.

We all know that it is possible to be convinced that Jesus died to save us, but not convinced that He died to heal us. We can be convinced that we are forgiven, but not convinced that we are free. We can be convinced that we are going to heaven, but just as convinced that God causes all of our problems here on earth in order to teach us lessons.

We can be so convinced of things that are not true, that we shut the door to things that are true. In 1 John, John keeps pointing out the fact that they saw and experienced what he is writing about. He was determined to convince them that what they were telling the people was true.

Paul points out in verse 19 of Romans 15 that the people were convinced by the power of miraculous signs and wonders. Again, we see the importance of being convinced. God asked Israel on several occasions what more He could have done to convince them of His faithfulness and His love and power.

How can we be convinced one day and uncertain the next? These and many others are questions that we could discuss at length but never agree on. What we need to do is search our hearts and minds and ask God to help us recognize the things that we accept as possible, but are not convinced that they are what God says they are.

We can be sure God could do something without being convinced that it applies to us. There are lots of prayers that are prayed by folks who are not convinced that they will do any good. Jesus said “Today if you hear my voice harden not your heart.” If today, as believers, we realize that we are believers in Christ but may not believe everything, or if we have areas where you can see that being convinced would be a benefit; then we should pass those things to God and begin to walk convinced that all things are possible for them that believe.