Many people say they believe, but what do they really believe and why is it so important to know?

You’re Not Alone

Many people say they believe, but what do they really believe and why is it so important to know? When times are difficult for a person, hopelessness sets in. And it begins to feel as if you are alone in facing all your problems. Right now, somebody, even a Christian, is facing poverty and sitting on the brink of financial ruin. Someone else might be facing loneliness and an inability to build relationships. Still another is someone who is struggling with an incurable disease, and right now there’s someone out there who cannot get their grievances, resentments, and childhood traumas out in the open. So much pain and so little understanding of what to do with it all! But life can be like a miracle. It’s enough just to realize that you are not alone in this world in suffering these things!

True Faith

True faith is accepting God’s Word as a reality of your life and knowing God by His word to truly love Him. Let me be clear: It is faith in God that enables you to obey Him, love Him, and do your duty that is faith created by God. This is the goal of faith in God. You must know the loveliness of God, know how worthy He is to be honored, know how in His Creatures God performs the work of salvation and perfection. This is the minimum you must have in your faith in God. Faith in God is the chief “switch” from living in the flesh to living in love; from living as a natural being to living supernaturally, in the image of Jesus Christ. It is liberation from Satan’s sphere of influence and living under the protection and care of God; it is the ability to achieve obedience to God rather than obedience to the flesh; it means letting God have your whole heart, making you perfect and freeing you from the corrupt nature of Satan.

Purpose of Faith

The purpose of faith in God is mainly so that the power and glory of God can be manifested in you so that you can do God’s will, you can fulfill God’s plan, and you can be able to testify of God before the world. The goal of faith in God should not be to see signs and wonders or to do something for your flesh. The goal should be to know God, to obey God, to obey Him as Peter did until death. This is what faith in God should lead us to. Eating and drinking the Word of God to know God and to please Him. Eating and drinking the Word of God gives you a greater knowledge of God, and only after that can you really know how to obey Him. Only by knowing God can you really love God and the attainment of this is the only goal one should strive for in his faith in God. If, however, your faith in God includes trying to see signs and wonders, then your understanding of such faith in God is wrong.

Faith in God presupposes mainly an acceptance of God’s Word as the reality for your life. Only by putting into practice what we learn from His Word will we discover the reason for our faith. In one’s faith in God, one must strive to be perfected by God, to be able to obey God, and to obey Him completely. When you can obey God without complaint, to consider His desires, to reach the spiritual age of Peter, to master the style of Peter that God spoke of, then you will be more successful in your faith in God. That means that He has now fully purchased you and owns you (1 Pet 1:19).

Believing in God

We are constantly surrounded by angels. God’s Word says He “makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire” (Heb 1:7). By living out our faith, it means we do “not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb 13:2). Believing in God means believing that God exists. Not just believe that He exists, but believing in Him because of our faith which is a gift of God (Eph 2:8-9). It is the simplest concept of belief in God that even a child can understand. Head knowledge of God is not true belief. We might even believe in the existence of God, but so do the demons (James 2:19). True faith in God means experiencing God’s Word and work based on the belief (Eph 2:10) that God is sovereign over all things. Therefore, you must be freed from your flawed character, must fulfill the will of God, and must come to the knowledge of God. Our work is a lifelong work; it is called sanctification.

Open Your Heart

To receive help from the Holy Spirit, you must be open to Him. Otherwise, He cannot teach you. Without the Spirit, we can’t even accept the Word of God. The Apostle Paul said, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14).

Honestly ask yourself these questions:

• Are you ready to accept help when you know you need it? Or do you still think you have to do everything yourself?

• Does your view of the world even include the idea that everything will work itself out without any effort?

• Are you capable of trusting yourself to someone else?

Ask, Seek, Knock

Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Matt 7:7-8). If you truly believe, you will ask God for help; you will seek answers through His Word and godly counsel; and you will knock on doors of opportunity that God brings before you . Germany Kent said, “Everything happens for a reason. Wait on God and trust in Him. He wants the best for us. He wants to take us from glory to glory, and from victory to victory.” Sounds a lot like what the Apostle Paul wrote about having full assurance that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). That is why it’s important to believe; to believe in God and to believe in the Word of God.

Here is some related reading for you: What Essential Doctrines Must All Christians Believe?

Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Author’s Bio: The author is Carrie Duncan. She is a Christian and mother of two. She is now working at Research Paper Writer.

Tagged as: belief, believe, faith, Sovereignty, Trust