“These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Whenever we set up a new account on a website, we click a box confirming that we have read and accepted the terms of agreement. This is a legal step that serves as a contract to define the rights and responsibilities of the user and company. Many times we treat our faith the same way: We check the boxes of agreement for basic evangelical beliefs, and we seek to live according to those beliefs and values. While this gives us some guiding principles to live by, Jesus’s words remind us that our faith is more than just accepting terms of beliefs or an agreement to live by.
When we accept Christ, we are transformed into new creations. We turn from our former ways of life and live empowered by the Holy Spirit. This miraculous work cultivates change and leads us to depend on God’s ability over our own. Paul said in Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and [a]this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” You have been equipped by the Spirit for new life in Christ. Press into this gift and depend on God’s strength, anticipating all He can do through you.
- What are some ways we can view faith like a list of boxes to check? How does this compare to living in daily dependence on God?
- Who in your life has lived as a powerful testimony of all God can do through a person? What did you learn from them?
- Pray and thank God for examples that show you what it looks like to be transformed by Christ.
