The Work of Believing

“Jesus told them, ‘This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.’” - John 6:29

Things have changed so much over the years. In the year I was born gasoline was twenty-eight cents a gallon and you could get a dozen eggs for less than thirty-five cents. But one thing hasn’t changed much over the years and that’s the results of good, honest work. If you work hard in school, you can make good grades, get into a good college and hopefully get a good job. Our society values hard work. And so it should. But things in the kingdom of God aren’t always the same as they are in the kingdom of this world.

In John 6, a crowd of people had been following Jesus. They witnessed the feeding of the 5,000 and were amazed at the works Jesus performed. They said to Him, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?” Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”

Advancement in the kingdom of this world is based on our ability to do good works. But the Kingdom of God is not based on works, but rather on faith. Jesus said, the only “work” you need to do is to believe. You cannot depend on your good works to please God. God is already pleased with you. What he wants from you is not for you to work to earn his favor, but to believe that he has already given it to you.