GOING FROM BELIEVING TO TRUSTING

            "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ---  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:9, 10, 13). The attendance at most churches will be increased on Easter Sunday. It would be great if all of them were in church each and every Sunday, but being there on that particular Sunday to hear a message that proclaims the death, burial and resurrection of our precious Lord will be worth their time. However, I dare say that all in attendance will not hear anything new that they did not already believe before they came. Many lost people believe the truth that Jesus is the virgin born Son of God who lived a perfect life on earth! They also believe the Gospel record of Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, and ascension are all absolute facts of history! Yet, with all that knowledge they will go to Hell and miss Heaven by 15 inches. That is the approximate distance from their heads to their hearts.

            The same Greek word is translated in its verb form as 'believe' and in the noun form as 'faith'. Young's Concordance and Vine's Dictionary of New Testament Words both reveal that the word does not refer to the knowledge a person may have. Biblical believing is synonymous with 'placing one's confidence in, to trust, to rely on'. While an individual must believe the truths about Jesus and His Gospel, it is only when he believes ON Him that he is born again. Our goal in witnessing to the lost is to place the truth in the sinner's mind so he will be able to trust Jesus from the heart. Through many years, I have learned to use certain techniques to help people who have always believed in Jesus to trust Him with their hearts for salvation. 

            When talking to a young person, it is not enough just to tell them to believe on Jesus. They have always believed on Him! I tell them to imagine they are up on a roof and their Dad is below and says, "Jump to me." The child would say, "No, I am scared!". The Dad says, "Don't you know who I am? I am your Daddy! I promise you that I will not let you hit the ground. I will catch you!" I explain the child goes from believing who Dad is and trusts him with his life when he sails off into the air. I then encouraged the young person to jump to Jesus by asking Him to be his/her Savior.

            Counseling an older person is different. Sometimes, it would be in my office and other times in their home. In my office, I would often point to an empty chair and ask if they believed that chair would hold their weight. "Of course", they would say. Then, I would tell them that their believing it would hold them would change to trusting it when they sat down on it. They must believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not only true, but everything Jesus did was for them. Jesus is now calling them to come to Him and they will place their trust in Him when once for all time they ask for Him to save them. What they have believed with their minds is now being trusted with their hearts.

            In some cases, people have asked, "How will I know that He has saved me?" I reminded them that Jesus cannot lie and He promised that "whosoever will call upon His name will be saved." One young lady had talked to numerous Pastors and Evangelists at her church, but she could not seem to get saved. Her Mother asked me to talk with her. I asked this question, "If you and your Mother were headed to town and when you got in the car she told you to go back in and make sure she had turned the stove off. But, when you opened the door, Jesus stood there and said for you to not worry about the stove. He would turn it off for you. Would you wonder whether or not He did?" She said, "Of course not." Then, I asked something like this, "Jesus has told you to repent of your sins and ask Him to forgive you and He will come into your heart. How could you ever wonder whether or not He did?" She smiled and said, "I now know He will save me!" And, she was! She trusted Jesus just because He promised to save her.  

            I have tried to do everything I could to make sure that lost people believed the truth about themselves and the saving Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't deserve salvation, but Jesus loves them anyway and offers it to any who will place their trust in Him. Before encouraging them to go from believing to trusting, I ask them the simple question, "Where would you go if you died right now?" Their answer would be, "I would go to Hell." Then I asked, "If you call on Jesus right now to forgive you and save your soul, and died five minutes from now, where would you go?" They would say, "If I asked Him to save me and died five minutes from now, I would go to Heaven!" That's what it is to go from believing to trusting. What you believe about Jesus should make it easy to trust Him with your heart!