Beth Moore

From chapter 3 of Believing God, Moore offers 5 faith statements that help us learn to raise the shield of faith. Her rationale is that the shield is the first line of defense–if the shield stops the “fiery darts of the enemy,” then the armor (and what’s inside the armor) is protected. Because the enemy’s attack is most often directed at our faith– “Did God really say that?” “You think He’ll do that for you?”–these 5 statements give us specific tools to respond to those seeds of doubts.

Here are the statements:
1. God is who He says He is.
2. God can do what He says He can do.
3. I am who God says I am.
4. I can do all things through Christ.
5. God’s Word is alive and active in me.

These are great all by themselves; I love that Moore adds motion to this, describing a process she uses to make it physical: raise your arm as if holding up a shield, and declare each statement as you count them off on your fingers. For those who might think this foolish, Moore says:

“Beloved, I was once the most bound-up, defeated believer you’ve ever met, and now I’m a walking miracle experiencing the power of God. With all due respect, how’s life going for you?”

Education majors know the value of kinesthetic learning, and what Moore suggests is what many of us learned in Sunday school as we marched in the infantry, rode in the cavalry, and pretended to be in the Lord’s army. For me, Moore’s 5 faith statements provides a nice substitute for the declarations I learned to count off on one hand: the 5 acts of worship (singing, praying, preaching, giving, and communion) and the 5 steps of salvation (hear, believe, confess, repent, be baptized). These sets of 5 were designed to teach denominational doctrine; Moore’s 5 are designed to build me spiritually.

cover of Believing GodI’ve just finished the first chapter of Beth Moore's Believing God, and I want to take a few minutes to record my thoughts on what looks to be a great–and challenging–study.

Moore quotes 2 Peter 1:3–4, long a favorite of mine:

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (NIV)

Wow! I’m a little overwhemed when I stop and consider what Peter is saying–when I stop to actually believe that Peter speaks literal truth. It helps me to take this passage piece by piece, because there are a lot of pieces here.

  • God’s divine power has given me everything I need for what? life and godliness (what’s not covered by these two terms?)
  • how? through my knowledge of Him who called me by His own glory and goodness. Several translations add the word true before knowledge, and the Amplified uses full, personal knowledge. What difference does this make? It would seem that Peter is not talking about head knowledge here, having facts stored in memory; rather, he is talking about a deep knowing, experiential and personal. (This idea of knowledge is clearly important to Peter, because he uses this same word in verses 2 and 8 as well–and it’s worth considering what Peter has to say about our knowledge of Jesus Christ. But that’s for another post!).
  • So, my knowledge of Christ is the conduit by which He gives me everything I need for life and godliness.
  • Peter adds that He called me through His own glory and goodness–perhaps to distinguish it from mine (in case I thought I had any!). But then Peter builds on this: it is through His glory and goodness that He has given me His “very great and precious promises.”
  • Through (notice that this is the third time the word “through” has occurred in these two verses)His promises I can do 2 things:
    • participate in the divine nature, and
    • escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Let’s see if I can put this in my own words: As I know Jesus Christ fully and truly, His divine power gives me everything I need to live for Him. Because He is good and glorious, He has also given me His incredible promises, and these promises allow me to be what He wants me to be, sharing His character and nature, and these promises allow me to escape from the death and destruction that would otherwise come into my life apart from Him.

Imagine the power of believing this, of truly embracing this truth with all our hearts! To put it simply, I lack nothing to live an incredible, victorious life that honors God.