“There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” (Romans 3:11)
I have never met or read about anyone who wakes up in the morning, opens the Word of God and reads it until it is time to go to sleep, I have never heard of anyone whose entire life revolved around seeking the face of God, because no one ever has.
All who have been saved by grace have been blessed with a very special blessing, the power to believe, but not one, save for one, the Lord Jesus Christ, has ever lived the entirety of their lives solely for the glory of God. The flesh, my friends, gets in the way, the world, our self.
This is not to say we do not attempt to, but you know yourself that there are times when our desires are not fixed towards heaven, when the obligations of the world and the desires of the flesh take precedent over the things of God. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” (John 17:16) And so we are blessed with the power to believe, with faith, with the ability to trust that which we have no visible proof of, in Him whom we have never seen.
“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
These truths destroy every works-based religious ideology of salvation by works, they lay to rest any notion that we have within ourselves any ability to come to the Son unless the Father draws us, they prove that we have no righteousness apart from the Living God. We are made the righteousness of God in Christ, we are being made into the image of the Son of God, we have been blessed and are continuing to be blessed with the power to believe.
None of us were born with a desire to serve the Lord, not one person’s first words were “Jesus loves me” of their own volition, none of us were born with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we were all born in sin.
In God’s own chosen way for each of us individually, were we called, we were shown the truth of who He says He is, we accepted what we were shown as truth, and we were then given the power to believe, our faith is a gift from God. “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matt. 22:14)
You were chosen because you believed, your belief is a blessing beyond compare from the Almighty. Both are true.
This narrow path we are on requires faith, the ability to walk diligently towards that which you can offer no viable proof to anyone about, we believe because we have been blessed with the ability to believe, anything else is nothing more than intellectual deductive reasoning or the deceit of the heart. “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” (2nd Tim. 1:12)
Our actions prove our faith to others, but those same actions can be emulated without a heart that agrees, our words can express the truths of the Scriptures without actions performed, professing the Lord with our lips only. Grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ has saved us, the power to believe comes from that same grace.
When you believe, Philippians 4:13 becomes an undeniable truth, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” You can continue on the path no matter the circumstances or the possible consequences to yourself, because that power to believe, your faith, that incredible blessing, has shown you the truth, that He who has promised is faithful.