Imagine if I walked into a car dealership and asked if I could take a car for a test drive. They would copy down all my information and mention that I shouldn't be gone too long. As I drive a nice red one out of the parking lot I have a sudden desire to travel to New York, so on impulse I decide to take this car on the road. You know I probably would not get very far before I noticed some flashing lights behind me and was pulled over by the police.

Now if I came to you (or maybe you visited me in jail) and I asked you why it did not work out and why things did not go the way I wanted. You would probably look at me like I was crazy. You see I "tried" but I did not "buy," therefore even though I had a sincere desire to make the trip, I could not do it. You would probably tell me that if my desire to was to go to New York I should have at least bought the Corvette.

In the same way many have said they "tried" the Christian life... The reality is they did not have the faith to "buy" into the Christian life with every thing they had. This is why their intended trip to Heaven did not and could not work out.

This is the difference between simple belief and saving faith. If you have true faith in God it means that you are able to go through intense suffering, because you have the faith that God is "working all things to the good…" (Romans 8:28).

You see being a Christian means following Christ (the very term Christian means "follower of Christ"). Jesus described it like this: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). Let me highlight a portion of that verse. When Jesus said that we must "take up our cross." He is referring to the Roman practice of having a person who was about to be crucified carry their cross to the place of crucifixion. You see following Jesus means you are willing to die for him—that you will be obedient unto death. (Is it not fitting that if our LORD was willing to die for us, we should be willing to die for him?) This is kind of faith (or belief) talked about in John 3:16 when Jesus tells us that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This kind of belief is not just intellectual, it is true faith in the living God that he will do what he said he would do.

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