6_What Do I Really Believe?

In the makeup of our society, we are a collection of people with widely divergent beliefs about many things. You may rightly say, “That’s an understatement!” All I need to do is mention the word politics and that alone will justify my statement. We could include religion to further emphasize the diversity of beliefs that exist among people. The list could go on and on.

We see our differing beliefs played out in social media and in the streets from time to time, as people demonstrate what they believe as a means of trying to sway others into their camp. The internet and social media give us access to every possible opinion about anything under the sun. Some of these opinions challenge our own beliefs, and that can be unsettling—maybe even cause us to be angry. We wonder, “How can someone hold that opinion? What’s wrong with them? Why are they not able to see things as they really are?” This gives me fits sometimes!

Importance of Our Beliefs

Our beliefs are important to us. We could almost say they are a part of who we are. When someone challenges one of our beliefs, it can feel like they are challenging us … our person … who we are. This is especially true about our core beliefs—those important beliefs that we all have.

Our society cries out for tolerance toward one another as our beliefs collide. At the same time, it is difficult to find much tolerance in the world, even among those who are clamoring for it. Sometimes the ones advocating for it are among the most intolerant people in their interactions with others. Our beliefs—our viewpoints—are just that important to us. And they are firmly rooted in us.

I have never met anyone who, when challenged by someone with an opposing belief, didn’t believe they were right and the other person was wrong. None of us would intentionally carry around a faulty belief system. It just isn’t done. We all believe that we are right and that those who disagree with us are wrong.

Shaped by Our Beliefs

Most of us are pretty settled in what we believe about a wide range of things. What we believe has been formed in us over a lengthy period of time. It is generally thought that the formative years of someone’s life are from birth to 8 years of age. During those early years, most emotional and social development takes place. It is during those years that our belief system begins to develop. We begin to develop beliefs about ourselves and the world around us.

Over time, we develop various beliefs that are shaped by our parents, our environment, and our experiences, among other things. These beliefs are strong in us. They become what are often referred to as mindsets. We could define a mindset as a strong mental attitude about something that shapes how you interpret and respond to situations and influences your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. We all have them, even though we may not be aware of them.

Worldview

This collection of strong beliefs or mindsets forms our worldview. A worldview is not just a set of beliefs. It is more than that. It is a powerful ability within us that enables us to perceive and understand our world and everything in it. I believe that the ability to form a worldview is God-given as part of His design of the human race. Our worldview acts as a kind of lens and filter through which we see and perceive everything.

Because we all have a different set of beliefs that have been formed in us, we all have our own unique worldview. Even though we can have the same beliefs as others about certain things, we will likely have different beliefs about other things. Belonging to the same church or even the same family doesn’t mean that our worldviews are the same.

Our individual worldview acts as a powerful force in our lives. It informs us about everything we see and hear. It influences our thoughts and the opinions that we form. Worldview explains why people can have vastly differing viewpoints about politics, religion, or other important things they are experiencing.

Our particular worldview is not something we think about much—if ever. We look at the world around us through the lens of our worldview, believing that we are seeing things as they are. But what if our worldview is faulty? What? My worldview?

All of us tend to believe that we are perceiving the things that matter to us accurately. We believe that the opinions we have formed are the correct ones. If we believed otherwise, we would change our opinion … right?

Even though our worldview is a God-given ability, that doesn’t mean it is not faulty—at least in some ways.

A Check on My Beliefs

When we are faced with opinions that conflict with what we believe, either we don’t understand one another, or someone is wrong and someone is right. Two completely opposing viewpoints about something cannot both be true.

There is a story in the Bible that is likely to be very familiar to us. It’s the story of David and Goliath found in 1 Samuel 17, where we find David visiting his brothers who are soldiers in the Israelite army. The army is in a battle with the Philistine army. The battle has come to a standstill. Both armies are situated on opposing hills, calling out threats to one another.

Finally, the Philistine army sends Goliath down to the valley between them. Goliath is a fighter like no other. He is a 9 or 10-foot giant of a man. The Philistine army issues a challenge to the Israelite army to send their best fighter down to the valley to battle Goliath. The whole battle would be decided based on which fighter wins.

Goliath begins to shout to the Israelite army.

1 Samuel 17:8–10: “Why are you all coming out to fight?” he called. “I am the Philistine champion, but you are only the servants of Saul. Choose one man to come down here and fight me! If he kills me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, you will be our slaves! I defy the armies of Israel today! Send me a man who will fight me!”

The Israelite army is shaken by the sight of the man and his threats.

1 Samuel 17:11: When Saul and the Israelites heard this, they were terrified and deeply shaken.

David, a simple shepherd boy, untrained in battle, takes all of this in when he arrives on the scene to visit his brothers. He gets permission from the king of Israel to accept Goliath’s challenge and goes down to the valley to face him. Goliath looks at him with contempt and disbelief. He is insulted to be facing a boy in battle. David has no armor or weapons except for a sling and five stones.

Words are shared between them:

1 Samuel 17:43–45: So the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine also said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the wild animals.” But David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a saber, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”

David put a stone in his sling, ran toward the giant, and brought him down with a single stone.

The Israelite army saw an impossible situation as they faced a giant who seemed impossible to defeat. David saw the situation differently. He saw the same giant, but the giant was not facing him alone. He saw the giant in a battle with the Lord God, and in David’s mind, victory over Goliath was certain.

Who was seeing the situation correctly—David or the Israelite army? They both saw the same giant soldier in the valley. Yet David saw things with a different mindset—a mindset that had been formed in him through other experiences and tests where God had proven Himself faithful. David didn’t face Goliath with a hope that he would be defeated. He went into battle with a firm conviction that the giant’s defeat was certain.

Our Beliefs About Ourselves

What we believe affects how we see things. The mindsets that have been formed in us throughout our lives tend to work together to shape how we picture ourselves and God. They can affect how we live our lives and our confidence as we face life’s challenges. Our beliefs about ourselves and about God affect our sense of self-worth and our confidence in God’s grace and His provision in our lives.

If someone has a negative or positive concept of themselves, it is rooted in what they believe. If they have a negative self-image or question their value as a person, those beliefs will affect them in unhealthy ways. It can be like a pit we fall into. As long as we hold those negative beliefs about ourselves and about God, there will be no way to crawl out of it.

It is so essential that we see ourselves from God’s perspective. In our last Kingdom Thought, “Am I Good Enough?” we covered the amazing changes that take place in a person’s life when they come to faith in Christ. They are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Jesus. They are made into a brand-new creation spiritually and given a new identity—the identity of a saint … one of God’s holy ones. This doesn’t just happen to certain people. Everyone who surrenders their life to Jesus is made completely new.

If all of this is true, why doesn’t it feel that way? Why would someone whose life has been changed so dramatically continue to have negative thoughts about themselves? Why is it difficult to picture themselves in their new identity? It is often easier to believe it about someone else than to believe it about themselves.

Believing in the Truth

It’s one thing to know the truth about all of the ways that God transforms someone when they come to faith in Christ, but that’s different from believing it is true for them. Sometimes the core beliefs that were formed in them before they surrendered their life to Jesus are still very strong. Instead of replacing their old beliefs with new ones about their identity in Christ, they add the new beliefs to their old core beliefs. When they encounter struggles and challenges in life, they revert to the old core beliefs.

Believing the truth about what God has done for us when we put our faith in Jesus involves faith. I know that this may sound overly simplistic … just have faith … just believe. But it really is just that. We seem to have more problems with faith than almost anything else, and yet it is an important key to walking in our new identity, overcoming our self-doubt, and walking in victory.

Faith

Jesus’ disciples struggled with their faith. There were several times when they heard Jesus praise someone’s faith. There were other occasions when Jesus would ask His disciples, “Where is your faith?” It seems like He was surprised sometimes by their lack of faith. It is not surprising that one day the disciples made it known to Jesus that they wanted Him to enlarge their faith.

The Gospel of Luke captures the moment:

Luke 17:5–6: The apostles said to the Lord, “Show us how to increase our faith.” The Lord answered, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you!”

What? They are asking for an increase in faith. Is Jesus telling them that they need tiny faith—the size of a small seed?

Jesus is teaching them that it is not the amount of faith someone has that is important. What is important is the quality of their faith … who or what is the object of their faith. In other words, in whom are they placing their faith?

One of our biggest problems with faith is that we place it in someone or something other than God. Jesus was pointing this out to His disciples when they asked for more faith. When they were in the boat with Jesus and the storm was raging, where were they placing their faith? When they were facing the need to feed large groups of hungry people, where were they placing their faith?

Hard to Break Patterns

There is a pattern that can be hard to break in our lives. It is not just putting our faith in someone other than Jesus that gives us the most trouble. If we put our faith in someone or something else, one day we will experience the disappointment of being let down—and that will be that.

The biggest stronghold that we all face is our pattern of putting our faith in ourselves rather than in Jesus. Even with all the struggles someone might experience going it on their own—putting their faith in themselves when it comes to the decisions they need to make—it can be difficult to shift that faith from self-determination to faith in Jesus.

When we come to faith in Jesus, we come to Him just as we are. That’s the wonderful thing about grace. We don’t have to clean ourselves up and get our lives all straightened out before we come to Him. He meets us right where we are. Because we come to Jesus just as we are, we bring all of our old beliefs into our new relationship with Him.

There is no "clear" button that can be pushed to erase all of that. That’s true about our old core beliefs—those mindsets that have been formed in us since we were children. Unless those old beliefs and patterns of thinking are changed in us, we will struggle to walk in our new identity. We have to break free from our old way of thinking and allow the Holy Spirit to form new patterns of thinking in us based on Truth—the truth of God’s Word.

Transformation

The Apostle Paul describes a process for creating new patterns of thinking and believing:

Romans 12:2: And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

What Paul is describing is a continual process of renewing our mind with the truth of God’s Word. There is no magic wand to wave over ourselves. No clear button to be pushed. What is required is a day-by-day process of our mind being renewed by the truth of the Bible—by reading it, studying it, and processing it in our minds.

Jesus wants to have a relationship with us … a relationship that involves putting our faith in Him. I think a stronger statement is needed. We need to put our reliance in Him with an understanding that without His continual work of grace in our lives, we are not able to walk in our new identity. We have been given a new identity, sure enough, but living in it is a whole other thing.

Questions to Consider

1. As you consider the prominent beliefs held by the society you live in, which are the most difficult for you to deal with?

2. Can you put your finger on a strong belief about yourself that is not consistent with your new identity in Christ?

3. What changes would you need to make in your daily pattern of living in order for your mind to be transformed by the truth of God’s Word?

4. What did you learn about faith that could be a game-changer as you strive to walk in your new identity?

About This Message Series

This is a message series about God and His kingdom. We will look and work to understand some things important to what we know about God and how we connect with Him. There are, of course, many different perspectives and viewpoints about matters like this that could be offered. For my part, I will use the Bible as my primary source for information and truth.

The messages that will be shared will be intentionally brief. I have learned that it is hard to keep someone engaged with a lengthy post, no matter how interesting the subject might be to the author. I find that hard myself.

You are invited to subscribe to receive new postings. That will be one of the ways that will inform me concerning the relevance of what I am sharing.