What Kind of Believer Are You?

January 17

“Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, "It will be fair weather, for the sky is red"; 3 and in the morning, "It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening." Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and departed,” Matthew 16:1-4.

Who asked for a sign? Who asked for a miracle? Those whose hearts were farthest from Him, the unbelieving, the hecklers, the critics. These people cared nothing for the real Jesus, so they occasionally became the objects of His scathing denunciations. He calls them "hypocrites" for asking for a sign.

In Belief or Unbelief, a segment from Today God Is First by Os Hillman, our brother states the following:

"...Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." - Romans 4:3
You can be a believer yet act as though there is no God. Whenever you fret over life circumstances, you immediately demonstrate unbelief. Whenever you move out of fear or anxiety, you believe a lie about God's nature.

Each day your actions affirm or convict you of your belief system. It reveals who the central focus of your life really is - you or God. It reveals who you place your ultimate trust in - you or God. It is one of the great paradoxes for believers. One day we can believe Him to move mountains. The next day we can question His very existence.

• Peter believed God and walked on water (see Matthew 14:29).
• A sick woman touched the hem of His garment and was healed (see Luke 8:43-48).
• A Canaanite woman believed and freed her daughter from demon-possession (see Matthew 15:21-27).

In what circumstances do you act as an "unbeliever"? Ask God to increase your level of trust so that your actions match up with one who believes every day.

It is evident that our faith is not reflected by what we evidence of belief in our Holy God when He interjects Himself into our circumstances in a miraculous way to deliver us from trouble, but it is profoundly evidenced by how firmly we stand when the circumstances of our lives are not going our way.

What kind of believer do we evidence ourselves to be? Are we the kind who “follow for the loaves and fishes,” John 6:26? Are we like the Pharisees and Sadducees who test the Lord by asking for a sign (see Matthew 16:1)? Or are we like Job who affirmed in the midst of his grievous trial, “Though He slay me, Yet will I trust Him,” Job 13:15?