‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.' – Matthew 22:38-39 (MSG)

Your Beliefs – The Believe Series – Part 7

Go to PART 1  |  PART 2  |  PART 3  |  PART 4  |  PART 5  |  PART 6  |  PART 7

What do you believe?

I bet you can rattle off, at least, ten things straight away. Things you don’t even have to think about. Things that you KNOW are true and real even if you can’t prove it.

But let me ask you this question, why do you believe those things? I don’t ask in a skeptical way. I don’t ask to dislodge your faith OR your beliefs. I ask to help you strengthen them.

This past week, we were interviewed for a Podcast called SomeAnswers. (Check it out on someanswers.net – Episode 54). Samantha, the founder of SomeAnswers, always asks this one question at the end of every interview:

Why the heck do you believe in Jesus?

It’s a great question to ask yourself every now and then (every day). Don’t let your faith become a set and forget component. Don’t let your beliefs about God become something you put on your shelf, the place you go on Sunday, a bumper sticker on your car. Keep it alive, keep it moving, keep it growing and expanding.

I don’t believe the same things I did ten years ago. Even the basic stuff. Some of my beliefs have completely changed, some of them have grown deeper and more mature, bringing about more of an expansion of that belief. And I bet, if you thought about it, you’d be the same too. With the continuation of life and the situations and challenges we face, we live into our beliefs. Yet still, one thing remains. Jesus.

It’s important to question not just our beliefs around God, but our beliefs around others, too:

Why do you believe that about that person? That culture group? That neighbour?
Why do you vote for that political party? Do you really know what they stand for?
Why do you shop there? Why do you avoid that place? Why do you want give to that cause? Have that title? Hang out in that space? And more.

There have been times in my life where I have held assumed beliefs about someone or something, and it wasn’t until I explored that belief and questioned it, that I realised I was gravely wrong. The questions brought changes, a redemption of sorts, around something I believed that turned out to be false.

This brings up another important question that has become central, VITAL, to my faith:

How does my belief impact the people around me and the way I see the world?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The longer I live, the more I love, the more I experience, the more grey and unsure life becomes. Except for one thing. This one thing gets clearer to me every hour, every day, every year: love is truth.

Jesus told his friends that all the commandments, all the laws of the prophets, can be summed up in this: Love God, love your neighbour, love yourself. (Matt 22.)

Question your beliefs, and if they don’t lead you to love – God, yourself and others – keep questioning. Keep asking. Keep seeking.

Don’t let your beliefs become a wall around your life or a weapon you yield, a means of attack and division, an object that you keep, or lines that you recite, unthinking and unfeeling.

Faith is an exploration of how to BE in the world. How to live out this belief we have that God is here, He started it all, and He’s taking us somewhere. Jesus lived and breathed and died and resurrected; he showed us transformation. Much of the Christian life is about transforming; working out how to live as God created us to live. The challenge for you and I is to have open hands and hearts; to be flexible too and aware of the spirit; to keep on listening and learning and being humble enough to let go of what gets in the way of Jesus and embrace the things that help us be who He wants us to be.

Belief is a foundation, or a springboard, rather than a wall or structure. It’s a place for you and me to launch into life, into relationships, into living in this big, beautiful, complex world with the love of Christ.

Take some time today to ask yourself what your beliefs are and why? And question your way into the love and heart of it all.

“God himself does not give answers, he gives himself.” Frederick Buechner.

How does your belief affect the world around you? Leave us a comment below.

Much love, friends.
Lizzy (and Jesse).

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