It's Hard Work Believing -- This is a World Obsessed with Doing

"Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. " (John 6:28-29)

This passage brings out the truth about our Lord and Savior.

He is still our Lord and our Savior.

He asks us to believe on Him, to trust Him, and this trust is a growing process which takes us faith to faith, as we grow in grace!

Why do we struggle with this?

Because like the Israelites of Jesus' time, we want to know: "What can we do? How do we work the works?"

We have nothing we can give God, for God gives us everything.

We are not autonomous.

We do not even create ourselves.

Such is the nature of sin, that we think that we can take care of everything, including ourselves, and thus do not have to rely on anyone or anything else.

We do not need other people. We need life.

We need Jesus, and the Good News is that Jesus, Savior, came to us and provided us everything.

It is hard for us to believe this. There is an innate need for us to keep trying to be more, to do more, to have a part in all that Jesus has done for us.

For years, I was so busy on the inside. So busy trying to figure out what I needed to.

He is our Life, and He has taken care of everything. It is the height of arrogance for me to think that i have to add something that what He has already done.

Now, once again, why do so many Christians have a hard time with this?

They have not accepted the harsh truth: I am dead, separated from God in Adam. I need a new life, a new identity, a new standing, out of Adam and into Christ.

Do we really accept what Jesus says when He told His disciples: "Apart from me, ye can do nothing."?

Most Christians still think that they can -- and must -- do something.

There we find ourselves right back to the Israelite dilemma: "What must we do, that we may work the works of God."

Jesus rebuffed their demand for a list of demands, and told them:

"This is the work: that you believe on Him whom He has sent."