The Importance of Believing Rightly

Believing the wrong things can be very dangerous.

One time when my step-sister and I were kids we had taken a long board and laid it across a 55 gallon drum and used it as a teeter-totter.  After a while, we got bored with it and went inside to play with something else.  A short time afterwards, a friend of my step-dad came over and as they were standing around talking, the friend noticed our contraption and asked what we were doing with it.  My step-dad lied and told him we were using it as a ramp and jumping our dirt bikes on it.  Said friend supposed that if a couple of little girls could jump this homemade, Evil Knievel style ramp so could he.  After all, he did just ride his motorcycle over to our house.  Let’s just say it didn’t end well with the friend.   He should have never believed my step-dad… Very dangerous.

People often reject biblical Christianity because they don’t understand it.  Even people who consider themselves to be Christians often reject the parts of the bible they don’t understand.  Having the correct perceptions and perspectives are important; because it affects what we believe and what we understand to be truth.   What we perceive as truth will have a direct bearing on how we order our steps in life. It will determine who and what we value.

“What you see and what you hear depend a great deal on where you are standing.”    C.S Lewis

Perception, or the act of perceiving something, is basically the idea of how we filter incoming information.  We can perceive with any of our 5 senses; touching, tasting, smelling, seeing or hearing,  but it is more than just taking information on board. It is how we process it.  It is how we interpret the data we take in.

Perspective on the other hand, is the position from which we view the world outwardly.   As C. S. Lewis said, it is the view from which we stand. As a dental assistant, I sit on the left of the patient while the doctor sits to the right.  It is part of my job to make the doctor aware of things that he may not be able to see from his perspective; from his limited view from the right side of the chair.   It’s not that he is blind and cannot see, he just can’t see clearly from where he sits. From where we sit (or stand) in life will also determine how we process our incoming data.

We will believe what we perceive as truth.

What we believe defines our reality.

At one time in my life, I did not believe the bible was true.  Oh, I would have told you that I did, but the evidence of my life would have said otherwise.  The sum of my reality did not factor in seeing myself as a sinner, let alone being held eternally accountable for my thoughts or actions.  That was the direction I was walking.

 

But I had people in my life who were praying for me.

And God began to work through those prayers and I started to entertain the thought that perhaps I was believing wrong things.  I allowed the possibility to enter into my mind that perhaps my truth was really a lie; that God was not only real, but alive and well and in pursuit of my heart.

I picked up my old bible and began to seek to understand God and His word.

I started to believe differently.  My reality shifted.

This is why believing is so paramount to the Christian faith.  It is the act of changing your mind- from perceiving one thing as truth to perceiving another thing as truth.  It’s abandoning one reality and surrendering to another.  That is repentance in its most basic form.

 

God implores us in His Word to believe rightly.

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. John 3:36

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. John 5:24

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. John 6:35

For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.  John 6:40

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this? ” John 11:25-26

And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me.  He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.  I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.” John 12:44-46

Do you get the idea that believing is important?  Look at all the promises that are afforded us by believing!  Salvation, forgiveness, eternal life, to never hunger or thirst for truth, the resurrection, and to never walk in darkness! And that’s just a few from the book of John! (And I didn’t even list John 3:16 here because I know you already know that one, right?  If you don’t, look it up!)

 

It is my hope that by spending time together studying the word, you will come to perceive God like never before.  I pray that it will change your perspective of yourself and the world around you.

Believing is the first step in salvation for a reason.  It opens up the doors for everything else the Spirit has to offer; to receiving, knowing and growing in your spiritual life.

As C. S. Lewis also once said, “We are what we believe we are.”

Just believe RIGHTLY!