Who or What Do You Believe In?

This is part 2 of my blog series titled The Heart of the Matter.

The heart stores your beliefs and values - who/what do you believe in?.

Most of humankind search for the meaning of life and what we should believe in.

In order to trust in something, you first need to believe that it exists.

Salvation is not about deeds, it is about faith. Good deeds are a response to God’s acceptance of us and not a means of gaining that acceptance.

The Alpha course teaches the acronym ACT, which stands for Ask, Confess, Trust. This is then expanded upon to be Repent, Believe, Receive. You need to repent from your old ways in order to be properly in right standing with God, and to receive His blessings on your life.

Trust is a firm belief in the character, strength, or truth of someone or something; a person or thing in which confidence is placed.

Per Hebrews 11:1 (various translations), Faith is confidence in what we hope for and a conviction about what we do not see.

A conviction is something about which we are convinced; it is a firmly held belief.

So, we see that Faith and Trust go hand in hand (they are synonyms of one another).

Romans 10:9 says “If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Where have you cast your anchor? If it is in the wrong place, you can come adrift.

Proverbs 3:5-6 advises “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Colossians 3:1 “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”

Seeking out or claiming something in faith is treating faith like a force that results in something happening if your faith is strong enough. But, it is in the object of our faith (Jesus), not the attitude or strength of our faith that we find salvation. The latter would make it reliant upon us. The saving power of faith relies upon the object of our faith.

Accept that it is all of Him and none of you, and follow Him, 100% secure in His love.

Renounce any trust in your own performance as the basis for your acceptance by God.

We have been made right with God, apart from our works, through faith alone.

Mark 4:32 mentions having faith like a mustard seed and thus being able to move mountains. What does this mean?

It means that your faith is meant to grow and grow over time, just like a mustard seed. The tiny mustard seed holds the potential of a 30-foot bush as it grows! Our faith doesn’t need to be outwardly large to have a large impact. A seemingly small act can have a huge impact on someone’s life. We are to trust in this.

Do you doubt that your faith can grow like this?

The more you exercise a muscle, the stronger it becomes. It’s the same with faith and trust.

Beth Moore says in her book ‘Believing God’ that we should always wear our shield of faith as our first line of defense against Satan’s arrows of doubt, deception, etc. and we are to live by the following 5 point mantra:

“God is who He says He is.

God can do what He says He can do.

I am who God says I am.

I can do all things through Christ.

God’s Word is alive and active in me.”

Ezekiel 11:19-20. “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.”