31 Days of 5-Minute Free-Writes

Day 3: Believe

Welcome to Day 3 of my book-baby shower. If you haven’t gotten some refreshments yet, then by all means do. There’s still plenty on the table. While you eat, go ahead and listen as I tell you a little something my Editor-in-Chief shared with me today.

My first book, Reflections of a Mother’s Heart, will be coming out soon. To be honest, I’m scared to death, for I don’t know what to expect. A lot of work has gone into carrying this baby so far, but none of that compares to the effort that will be required to give it birth. Will it be painful? Will there be complications? Will anyone be excited to see my new baby once it’s born? Will they think it’s beautiful? Or will they turn and look the other way? So many doubts. So many fears.

Lesson 2: Only Believe

Yesterday’s lesson was “Fear not.” Today is the flip side of that lesson—“Only believe.” I searched the phrase only believe in my digital Bible a few minutes ago and two verses in particular jumped out at me, as though the Lord was saying, “Pay attention.”

Mark 5:36  As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.

This man had come to Jesus to ask the Lord to heal his daughter, who was sick at home; but before he even had a chance to speak to Jesus, he received word that his daughter had died. Did that matter to Jesus? Not in the least. Jesus said to the man, “Be not afraid, only believe.” Then He went to the man’s house and raised his daughter from the dead. All things are possible if you only believe. He can even make something of my book if I will only believe in Him and rest in what He can do.

The other verse was quite different from this one.

Philippians 1:29  For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.

We sing the chorus “Only Believe” as though the only thing we have to do is sit back with our feet propped up and trust God to do our work for us. But Paul reminds us in his letter to the Philippians that there is more to the story. Yes, we believe on Him who saved us, but that belief spurs us to action. I may believe my baby will be born healthy and strong, but I still have to push to get him down the birth canal.

Just like delivering a baby is much harder than the pregnancy, and motherhood is harder than childbirth (a different sort of pain), so serving Christ is not always easy. And I shouldn’t expect it to be so. Writing a book takes hard work. Publishing a book takes hard work. Getting a book into the hands of readers takes hard work. This may not count as suffering per se, but my point is that nothing worthwhile comes without a fair amount of effort. I know where Easy Street is, but it’s a hard road to reach.

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Kate Motaung, host of Five-Minute Friday, has challenged us to 31 Days of Five-Minute Free Writes, in which we will explore the telling of our story. This isn’t the first such challenge of hers, but it is the first for me. Thank you for sharing it with me. If you missed the first few days, you can jump to the beginning here.