As I was reading in scripture today, something came up in my heart that I wanted to blog about because I think it has some significance to it... I will attach a picture and walk through it.
Let me set this up for you: There was a man what was blind and he knew that Jesus was in town. He knew that if he could talk to Jesus and ask Him to heal him that Jesus was able to do so. He believed that Jesus could heal his situation. The blind man walked up to Jesus and asked, "Would you heal me?" and Jesus responded, "Become what you
believe."
In life we might believe something, but our actions might not always prove that I really believe it. For example, I might believe that Jesus can heal people today, but am I praying for people to be healed? In the picture, there is a line that says belief and another line that says actions. There is a gap between the two lines. The only way to make my actions line up with my belief is to take steps of faith. Trusting that Jesus is who He says He is and believing God. The lines (Actions & Belief) will never be level because as I grow in Christ, His revelation continues and the bar of belief continues to rise.
Questions I am asking myself:
How do my actions point to what I say I believe?
Where do I need to take steps of faith?
What has God revealed to me last?
2 comments:
So it's a difference believe a concept and believing the PERSON of God? Who could not take steps of action if you believe the PERSON of God is directing you?
I think you are right that actions are proof of what you believe. That is consistent with BDI (Belief-Desire-Intention) theory. In BDI theory it is Beliefs + Desires that lead to Intentions, and those intentions lead to Actions. In other words, your actions are evidence of what you believe. Faith is a way we can form new beliefs which we then test by acting on them and evaluating the results. The results of our actions (probably what you express as “revelation”) then either validate or invalidate our beliefs (Did we get the result we expected?). Based on this new knowledge, we then start the cycle over.
So, here are my questions… do you think this “revelation” can only come about with a god in the mix? Why isn’t it more easily explained as an evaluation of simple cause and effect? In other words, how could you falsify the claim that God is revealing something to you? As an example, let’s say a Muslim or a Mormon are making the same claim that you are. How would you falsify their claims of God’s revelation to them, and validate your claims? Also, do you think that the more we test beliefs and have valid data from which to form new beliefs, that the less we need to invoke “faith”? What I mean is that we now have good reasons for forming beliefs and may not need to rely so much on faith (belief in absence of reasons).
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