Higher Ground

Our eight-year-old son enjoys trying to get in and out of his new bunkbed without using the built-in ladder. One of his methods of getting out of the bed is to jump into my arms. This requires him to believe I can catch him, but when he jumps, there's always a moment when that belief becomes trust.

Most of us know John 3:16. It is one of the most widely-quoted and familiar passages in the Bible, but today I want to ask a more personal question: Are we living it?

This beautiful passage teaches powerful theological truths: God loved and gave so that we would not perish, but would have eternal life. The hinge is “whoever believes in him,” and yet, Biblical belief is more than mental assent that Jesus lived, died, and was raised from the dead. It means entrusting ourselves to Him—a moment where belief becomes trust, and we leap off the proverbial bunk bed.

Never before in history has information about God been more accessible. We have sermons, podcasts, books, Bible studies, and devotionals available to us around the clock. Yet we can keep learning more about Jesus without actually surrendering more of ourselves to Him.

The book of First John gives us a way to examine that trust: “We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands” (2:3). The difference between knowing John 3:16 and living John 3:16 is whether or not we are increasingly walking as He walked and loving as He loved. (See 1 John 2:6-11.) Prayer and fasting are of little importance if we are still hating our brothers and sisters and wandering around in the darkness.

Today, as you pray, ask the Lord this simple, yet searching question: “Am I living John 3:16?”