Our problem is unbelief

Hebrews 3:19 So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. We have the author’s summary commentary on Ps. 95:7-11 and the primary point he wanted to make: Unbelief will keep you from entering God’s promised rest. That first generation provoked God. They sinned. They were disobedient. They died in the wilderness. However, the root cause was the sin of unbelief—they didn’t believe God when He spoke. I wonder if you see how serious the sin of unbelief is and why you should be so careful not to have an evil unbelieving heart. If you don’t believe what God believes, you will open the door to idolatry. You will live by what you believe. If you don’t believe God, then you will believe the thoughts and philosophies of another, which is to make them your god. If you have another god, then you will provoke and anger the one true God. He has sworn not to allow any idolaters into His Promised Land. On a practical, daily basis, unbelief impacts our lives. If we don’t believe what Jesus believes, we live out of another source rather than God—we commit the sin of idolatry. If Jesus is the only source of love, then loving for the glory of God is impossible. If we do not believe in Him, if we don’t live with Him, if we don’t think like He thinks, then we will not have the peace and rest that He promised. We will live our lives striving to control people and circumstances for our temporal happiness and significance. That’s what it looks like to not trust God. So unbelief not only undermines love, it also is the antithesis to faith, and without faith it’s impossible to please God. A person plagued by unbelief is a hardened, troubled, worried, fearful, controlling, and restless person. A believing person is characterized by faith, love, peace, and joy—even when enduring various trials and temptations. How is that possible? He believes Jesus is His life and is in the process of renewing his mind to think like Jesus thinks. I’ve talked about this before, but we can’t hear it enough. Jesus’ worldview rests on three foundational truths that when we abide in Him govern our lives. 1) There’s only one God from whom are all things, and He is love. 2) Jesus’ love is enough. He satisfies my soul above and through all things. 3) God’s purpose in all things is to reveal Jesus in me and prepare me for eternity—to enter His rest. If we do not believe that Jesus is God, that He lives in us, and His life is our lives, then we will not be able to love God and others or enter His rest. The Israelites were not able to enter because of unbelief, so neither can we. May we always remember that our greatest sin is unbelief. It is an evil weed which seeks to overrun and choke out the love of God and others in our lives. Living to love with Jesus is what repentance of unbelief looks like. If you think you need more encouragement and a deeper dive into understanding unbelief and idolatry, you can find it in my book Live to Love: Experience freedom and joy in relationships. It’s available for free at livetolovewithjesus.com. I hope you’ll visit and introduce this podcast and the resources to others.