Believe in God; Believe Also in Me

Jesus speaking:

“Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me” (Matthew 11:6 NIV).

“And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me” (Matthew 11:6 NASB).

People of stated Christian belief or denominational adherence speaking:

“I believe in the Christian God, but not Jesus.”

“God is enough for me. I don’t need Jesus.”

“I am religious as far as the Christian denominational God goes, but am not into Jesus.”

“I know there is a Christian God; that's it, period.”

“I follow the liturgy and catechism of my church. Outside of that, I don’t really know God or Christ at all.”

“I pray to the Christian God all the time, but I am uncomfortable around the topic of Jesus.”

“I believe in a loving Christian God, but not the God of the Bible.”

“When I think of God, I don’t equate him with Christ, I equate Him with my religion and denomination. A personal connection with Christ is not part of that equation. If anything, Christ belongs to the church and is separate from me.”

Jesus speaking: 

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas *said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.
“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here” (John 14:1-31).

“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny Him before My Father who is in heaven” (John 10:32-33).

“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father”(John 10:14-18).

“I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).


This, then, is the Gospel, the Good News as it is called, that Jesus is come from and of our Father in heaven.

He comes, continually, for everyone.

The Good News is that there is no cultural, denominational, religious, Protestant, Vatican, familial, evangelical, political, social, priestly or congregational litmus test or corporate church membership or definition of God that one must sign on to, pass or maintain in order to become, and be, one of Jesus Christ’s tender sheep in His all-inclusive flock.

To “believe” in the Christian God without Christ is not only impossible, as the verses above make clear, but is also the greatest sorrow and rejection of abundant life one can impose on one’s self.


Copyright Barb Harwood

Prayer with no Expectations

At times I do not feel like praying. Anything forced does not seem to me to be prayer; It feels more like doing the dishes only because my mom told me to.

And then, especially earlier on in my Christian walk, I would pray because I thought my prayer—the prayer itself that emitted from my self—to have power. 

And then there is the transactional prayer—the praying that goes on at the same time as, in the back of my mind, a reciting of the score: 

“I have been living this good way for you, God, so You will certainly honor this request.”

As I sat here early this morning, contemplating how to get going again with prayer after many days of back-burnering it, it occurred to me that if I really pray for God’s will to be done (as Jesus taught), then I pray without expectations.

The elimination of expectations disables any trusting in myself and my words and instead recognizes and relinquishes all power to the Holy Spirit (who prays for us even when we don’t know what to pray and are at a loss for words):

“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27).

Rote prayer no longer exists for the same reason—it is no longer viable to think that my simply going through the motions will elicit an outcome. The Romans verse above clearly points this out, not so that we can simply never pray, but so that we can avoid, as much as possible, a rote sort of prayer that checks a box.

And the transactional prayer also disappears, again, for the same reason: whatever I do or don’t do, when erased from the scoreboard, frees prayer to be what prayer simply is: a pure two-way conversation with God void of past, present and future. 

Many people will say we ought to remember the answered prayers of the past (meaning, I suppose the prayers answered in the way we wanted them to be answered and not counting the prayers that weren’t). I agree it is very well to remember past and current blessings of God, and to certainly enjoy that they will be forthcoming. But not as a basis or criterion for current ongoing prayer.

Praying without expectations takes trust, which is what I realize I have lacked when I initiated rote, self-power-fulfilling and transactional prayer.

This trust is confident only of “God’s will be done,” keeping myself out of it in every way. It is a trust that thinks on Him and Him only—not what He will or won’t do—but just Him. 

This is the path, I believe, to the peace that the Bible says is beyond understanding. It is a trusting ignorance of outcomes content in a pure and simple faith in the person of Christ. 

Copyright Barb Harwood

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7