What Does The Evidence Say?

Many decades have passed since I was a young student, hearing this exact piercing question from a preacher.

“If you were on trial for your faith, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

Whatever we might call ourself: a Christian or Believer, a Follower, a Student of His Word—whatever it might be, if we believe we’re heaven bound, I now ask us as individuals, the same soul-searching question. If you were on trial for your faith, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

John 13:34-35 in essence tells us that others will know we’re a Christian by our love. Is there then enough of that kind of love flowing from our heart and life to convict us if we were on trial?

Jesus told Nicodemus, No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. We find this critical conversation in John 3:1-21, where Jesus describes what happens when we are. It makes us question … do we truly believe in Him to save us and not ourselves? Do we love His “light”? Or are we drawn toward the things of this world? Do we seek “truth”, even if it hurts or is inconvenient—or do we go with what “sounds right”?

Do our lives reflect what Galatians 5:22 calls the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness …? Or do we lean toward what we see in Galatians 5:19-21, the tendencies of our human nature, like satisfying our wrongful sexual thoughts, giving in to anger, feelings of hatred, pleasing or satisfying our fleshly nature instead of wanting what God desires for us?

When we take to heart the soul-searching question that preacher first asked so long ago, we are wisely doing what we see in Psalm 139:23-24 NIV, when King David prayed, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Then God is pleased.