A Million Reasons to Believe

In one day, I received 7 different sale catalogs from Macy's. One for jewelry, one for watches, one for household appliances, others for clothes, perfume, and so on. But all of them had one thing in common. Above the logo, "the magic of macy's", was their slogan for this season of sales:

"a million reasons to believe".

Got me thinking...

-Believe in what?

-How many reasons does a person need to believe?

The advertising execs at Macy's have addressed the issue of belief, which is really the issue of faith. People often pray, maybe when they get sick or have tragedy or financial struggles. My question is - Who do they pray to? In whom do they put their trust? The people at Macy's suggest that their catalog provides reasons to believe in the "magic of Christmas".

Well, I believe in the One that we celebrate at Christmas, the One who came from heaven to earth to purchase my salvation, and yours. No "magic" needed! And I don't need a million reasons to believe in Him, but God provided them anyway!

The writer of the book of Hebrews says that "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Then he describes all those great heroes of the faith and goes on to say, "Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us ... run with perseverance the race marked out for us...."

A great cloud of witnesses...

How many drops of water make up a cloud? Millions? Billions?

That's how many reasons we have to believe!

All those who have gone before us, walking a life of faith, provide evidence of God's faithfulness. And those who surround us now, encouraging us, praying for us, building us up, facing adversity with hope, walking their life of faith, being the hands and feet of Jesus on earth... Now, these are the million reasons to believe!

Susan