What do you believe?
I don’t mean a list of theological statements. Deep down, what do you believe is true? True about yourself. True about God. True about the world around you and the one to come. Not what you think you *should* believe, but what you actually believe...
If we want to understand ourselves better and thereby grow in our relationship with God, we need to understand what we truly believe. If you’re struggling to grow in your faith or feel stuck dealing with the same anxiety and fear over and over, it might help you to examine your beliefs.
Two categories…
There are two categories of beliefs to think about and pray about. One category consists of beliefs that are true, but that we don’t live out. They need to be nourished and reinforced so they make the journey from our heads to our hearts.
The other category is those things that we believe that actually aren’t true. We may have picked up ideas from our families of origin or from things we’ve read or heard. They just don’t line up with what the Bible teaches is true. Sometimes we don’t even realize that we believe them, but they show up in how we live.
We believe that which we live out
There are many things that we SAY we believe, but we really don’t. How do we know we don’t believe it? We don’t live it. In the same way, there are things we don’t realize we believe but we actually do. What we believe comes out in our actions and our words - both the words we say and the words that rattle around in our heads.
“...The mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” Luke 6:45b NIV
Christian author George MacDonald wrote,
“A man’s real belief is that which he lives by. What a man believes is the thing he does, not the thing he thinks.”
For example, I can say that I believe that God is in control. If I really believe that, then why am I so stressed out about every little detail of life? Why do I live as if it all depends on me?
James talks about this idea in James 2:14-26. He explains that although we are not saved by our actions, our actions are evidence of what we really believe. If we claim to believe one thing, but then live differently, then we don’t really believe what we think we do. “Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” James 2:18b
Start with honest reflection
What are some things you believe about God? Then ask yourself if you live like those things are true. Look within - what do you really believe and live out?
If we want to grow in faith, peace and purpose, we have to be honest with ourselves about what we really believe to be true. Sometimes that’s a difficult journey. It exposes us and can be scary. But it’s also freeing.
Here’s the thing… Living as if God is not in control is terrifying and stressful and causes all sorts of problems - physical, emotional, and spiritual. So is believing lies about ourselves, about God and about others. It’s not how we were designed.
God created us. He designed us. Think about any piece of technology - a car, kitchen appliance or other machine. It was created - designed - to serve a certain purpose and to function a certain way. If you try and use it other than how its designers intended, it’s bound to have problems. You can’t use a snow blower to mow your lawn - you’ll only wreck both the snow blower and the lawn..
We’re the same way. God designed our bodies to run on certain foods and nutrients with regular exercise and at a healthy weight. When we don’t follow those things, we get sick, tired, and our bodies don’t function the way they’re supposed to.
God also designed us to function in relationship with Him. When we believe things that aren’t true about Him or about ourselves and others, it causes problems because we’re not living the way He designed us to.
So, if we can weed out the lies that we believe and replace them with truth, we’ll be much happier in the long run. It may be a painful process, but it brings so much joy, peace and freedom!
To be fair, this isn’t as cut and dry as I would like it to be. It’s not just a switch that’s flipped one way or the other. “I really believe that God loves me and is in control,” or “I really believe that my life and destiny are completely up to me.” In reality, we fluctuate between the two. Perhaps it would be better to think of it as a slide with extremes on either end. Where on the spectrum are you? And how can you move closer to the “God loves me and is in control” side?
What are some things you believe about yourself? Your worth? Your value? What you have to offer? Do those beliefs line up with what God says about you?
Understanding where we are is the first step to moving in the right direction. Over the next few weeks, we’ll look at some different areas of life where we tend to believe lies. Then we’ll look at how to go about replacing those lies with truth to move closer to living the way God designed us to live.
How about you? How do you struggle most in this area?