Why Believe?

When life shakes your confidence in God, the question isn’t just does He exist? It’s is He worth trusting? This article wrestles honestly with that question and points to why faith is still the best option.

Why think about this?

This article is about why it’s worthwhile to believe in God. For some, this may seem like a basic topic. If you’re reading this, you probably already believe that there’s a God. Otherwise, you would probably be reading something else, rather than wasting your time reading something about a God that you’re not sure exists. So, it might seem like I’m trying to tell a bunch of math professors why it’s important to know how to add. This is a subject you’ve all probably figured out a long time ago, and you may never have to revisit it.

If that’s the case, then that’s awesome. I hope you never have a time when you really need to look into why it’s worth believing in God. I hope that this is a conclusive subject for you forever.

For many people, including myself, even though this subject might not have been a primary focus, at certain times in one’s life, there comes a point where it ceases to be obscure. There are two main reasons this happens:

• You start talking to people who don’t believe there is a God, and find that it’s actually rather difficult to convince them there really is one;
• Something comes along in your own life that really shakes your faith in God.

That second reason is what we see happening to Jehoram, King of Israel.

Jehoram’s Loss of Faith

If the events surrounding Jehoram are not fresh in your mind, you will find it helpful to re-read 2 Kings 6-7 before continuing.

In 2 Kings 6, Ben-Hadad, the King of Syria, has laid siege to Samaria, the capital city of Israel. And things are terrible. Like, really, really, awful. In the city, people are literally eating their children.

Because things are so bad, Jehoram is losing his faith in God. By this, I don’t mean he was losing faith in God’s existence. It actually rarely means this, in my experience. People seldom care that much about the theology of whether or not there really is a God. That might come later, yes, when they need to justify their reasoning, but at first, it is about losing the faith and the confidence that God will really help me—that doing things God’s way is worthwhile.

It is usually less about existence and more about trust. Is serving God actually worthwhile? What we see here with Jehoram is him answering, “I don’t think it is”:

And while he was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him and said, This trouble is from the LORD! Why should I wait for the Lord any longer? (2 Kings 6:33 ESV).

It is not really that he doesn’t believe in God. It’s because he thinks God is unreliable. He’s been waiting for God to deliver him, and God hasn’t. In fact, things have just gotten worse and worse. So really, what’s the point? Might as well just give up on God and do things my way.

Why Should He Believe?

If we were in the same situation, wouldn’t we too be inclined to respond: “Really, why should Jehoram believe? Clearly, God doesn’t seem to be coming through for him right now. Why shouldn’t he just give up on God?” Consider a few different reasons why this might not be the best response.

God Has Helped Him Before

This incident isn’t Jehoram’s first interaction with God. In 2 Kings 3, Jehoram was also facing major military trouble. And, back then, he asked Elisha for help from God, and God delivered him. Again, just a few verses earlier in 2 Kings 6, Elisha has been telling Jehoram through the Word of God, where the King of Syria’s camp is. God clearly was doing a great job of delivering him at that time. It sounds a bit silly to say, “Well, God has helped me every time before, but this time it’s different. This time, I’d better not trust him.”

But, at the same time, I know that’s totally something I’ve done. So, I can’t be too critical of Jehoram, because I’ve made the same mistake. Clearly, this is something to watch out for and learn from: when you start to doubt, look back on what God has done for you in the past. If God was worth believing in back then, why should you think He’s suddenly changed who He is?

Because God is Good

Another reason to believe in God, even when it seems like it isn’t working out, is that believing in God motivates you to do the right things. Abandoning God is often an excuse to abandon good deeds. And so, while you may frame it as a theological change, it’s often just an excuse to do sinful things.

For instance, in this situation, Jehoram wants to kill Elisha because the situation in Samaria is dire. Killing Elisha is an immoral thing; Elisha has not done anything to deserve death, whether you believe in God or not. All Jehoram is doing is taking out his pain on someone else, and that’s always wrong, regardless of the circumstances. Jehoram saying that God isn’t coming through for him doesn’t actually justify him killing an innocent man. It’s just an excuse.

Often, unfortunately, that’s precisely why people choose not to believe. Sure, you’ll hear a bunch of stuff about whether there’s really a God, but the underlying motivation is not theology; it’s the fact that they want to do something God thinks is wrong. If that’s the case, the problem isn’t God—the problem is you. If God is keeping you from doing evil things, He’s doing exactly the right thing. Don’t give up on God, keep away from evil, and all of a sudden God might start to seem a lot more attractive to you.

Because You Don’t Actually Have a Better Option

Finally, a significant reason why Jehoram should continue to believe in God is that he doesn’t actually have a better option. Say Jehoram abandons his faith in God and kills Elisha. Then what? He’s still stuck in a besieged city with no food. He is just now stuck in a besieged city with no food and no God. Sure, maybe abandoning God could give him more options to enjoy himself before he dies, but ultimately, he’s still going to die. The only option he actually has for escaping is God. Cutting that off actually just dooms him to death; it doesn’t make things better.

We may not be stuck in a besieged city with people starving around us, but that point remains valid for us today. God is the only one who offers a way to escape death. Sure, some people will offer to freeze you in liquid nitrogen on the off chance that someone in the future will be able to unfreeze you, but even if that somehow worked, it would only delay your death. The chance of death is 100%. There is nothing out there offering eternal life except God.

Understanding God’s Power

Fortunately for Jehoram, he didn’t actually end up killing Elisha. Rather than going through with something stupid, he caught himself, ran after his messenger, and didn’t execute Elisha.

However, he did complain to him. And when he complained, Elisha said, through the Word of the LORD, that by this time tomorrow, rather than people starving, food would be cheap. One of Jehoram’s officials thought this was impossible. But it wasn’t. God caused all the Syrians to leave. The King thought their leaving was impossible and that it must be some sort of trick. But it wasn’t. They had left. And the people went out and ransacked the camp. Samaria was saved, and food became cheap.

While the story is interesting in and of itself, I think the theme that emerges is one we see throughout the Bible: God can accomplish things in ways we never thought possible. Just because we think it’s impossible doesn’t mean that it’s impossible for God. The limits of our understanding are by no means the limits of God’s power.

A few other examples of this concept:

• Sarah laughed at the idea of having a son at 90.
• Moses asked how God was going to give meat to all the people in the wilderness.
• Jesus’ disciples wondered how it was possible to feed 5,000 people in the wilderness.

Limiting God’s power isn’t going to help you. If you’re refusing to believe because you think God couldn’t possibly do something, then He may very well take that as a challenge. However, God proving you wrong is rarely a good thing for you: in the case of this official, he got to see that God was right and he was wrong, but he didn’t get to benefit from it.

How Do We Know It Was God?

But, from a different angle, it’s quite possible for a doubter to ask, “How do we know that was even God?” I mean, nothing obviously miraculous happened here: the Syrians just up and left. Perhaps the King did indeed hire the Egyptians and the Hittites to aid Samaria, and they were simply delayed. Maybe there was just a lot of noise that night, and the Syrians got spooked. Perhaps the Israelites just got really, really lucky. In fact, you can explain a lot of things by luck. This approach is how people explain away answered prayers, saying, “Well, if you just pray enough times, sometimes what you pray for is going to happen.”

In this case, it wasn’t like a giant hand came out of the heavens and picked up the Syrians and threw them away. How would you know this was because of God, and not another reason? God is invisible. How can you believe in something you can’t see?

Well, there’s a significant detail about this particular occurrence, though: Elisha predicted it before it happened. And that’s how you can believe that there’s a God. Because of His Word. Because when God says something, it comes to pass. Sometimes crazy things happen. That’s nothing special. But to be able to predict when something unexpected is going to happen before it happens, and then have it happen as predicted? That’s not just luck.

But, if you didn’t know about Elisha having made that prophecy, you could easily just see it as luck. Perhaps you were living in Samaria and slowly starving, and then, suddenly, the Syrians leave, and you have food. You’d just put it down to luck.

But, as soon as you knew that Elisha, God’s prophet, had predicted it, you wouldn’t put it down to luck anymore.

You’d realize it was God.

Which is why, if you want to see God at work, it is essential to listen to His Word. If you don’t read the Bible, that won’t stop God from working. But, it means you probably won’t notice what He’s doing. He’ll still be doing His handiwork, but if you didn’t hear Him say He was going to do it, you could quite easily miss the fact that God was there the whole time. You’d just think it was luck, since you didn’t realize God had predicted it.

So, if you want to believe, or if you want someone else to believe, expose them to God’s Word. Show them what God is saying. And then, when you know what God is saying, you’ll be able to see His works in the world around you. If you aren’t listening to His Word, though, He’s easy to miss.

Wait

And finally, let’s say you’re having faith problems. You feel like God isn’t answering your prayers and doesn’t seem to be behaving the way you’d expect. You are reading your Bible and feel like you have a good understanding of how God should act, but He doesn’t seem to be acting that way. In that case, I have a critical piece of advice for you: “Wait.”

Yes. Wait.

You see, Jehoram was one day away from deliverance when he gave the order to kill Elisha. The very next day, the city was saved. But that day, he thought God was doing nothing. His faith was collapsing. Everything looked hopeless. And yet, if he’d waited just one more day, everything would have changed. Jehoram looked like a fool because he didn’t wait.

To give a personal example, my faith was majorly shaken when I was trying to go a certain way, everything seemed to go awry, and God refused to answer my prayers in the way that I wanted them answered. Everything turned out the opposite of what I thought was good and right and how God should want it to be.

It was tough for me, for a long time, because it seemed like nothing made sense, and God wasn’t there for me; even though I was trying to do everything right, it didn’t work out.

The funny thing is that now, when I talk to people about it, they’re like, “Wow, James, you really dodged a bullet.”

But I didn’t dodge a bullet. I wasn’t dodging at all. I was doing my best to get ahead of that bullet. But God grabbed me, kicking and screaming, and dragged me out of the way.

And I’m so, so, so glad He did. However, it took me a long time to realize it. Not because God wasn’t working, but because I didn’t understand what He was doing, even though it was for my good.

And that has done a lot for my faith, because I have learned, the hard way, that God is good, and that God does care about me, even when I’m too stupid to see it.

And so, I believe in Him. Because God has helped me before. And God is good.

What, then, is my advice? Don’t be like Jehoram. Don’t lose your faith just because it seems like God hasn’t done what you are expecting. Wait for Him.

Waiting for Jesus’ Coming

The reason why this is so important to repeat is that we are all waiting for Jesus’ coming. And we’re still waiting. Jesus’ disciples were expecting him to come in their lifetimes. And they’re all dead. Their successors were expecting the same. And they’re all dead. And on and on, for literally thousands of years, people have been expecting Jesus to come. And he hasn’t come yet.

It’s easy to lose faith. It’s easy to think that he’s never going to come, because he hasn’t come yet. However, my experience with God is that, while He might take a remarkably long time to do things, much longer than I would like, and I might take even longer to understand why He does them, that doesn’t mean He doesn’t exist. He does. And He’s still good. And I’m not going to give up on Him, even if I die before Jesus comes. Because I also still don’t have a better option. And even though I might be dead, God has the power to do anything. He has the power to raise me up when Jesus finally does come. So, I will actually get to see that God’s Word is worth believing. But unlike Jehoram’s official, who saw it but didn’t benefit from it, if I’ve died in faith, I will not only see the fulfillment of prophecy, but I’ll also get to enjoy it.

And that’s why I believe.

James Robinson,
San Francisco Peninsula Ecclesia, CA