Redefining what we believe
I came to a place in my own life after 15 years in a pulpit where I realized what I had come to believe had no relevence in my real life. In layman's terms, the things I believed weren't changing my life @ all. I remembered a lesson God taught me just 3 years into the ministry. I was lying awake in bed with my Bible on my chest when God dropped this thought into my conscious mind out of nowhere; Can you give me one reason why I shouldn't send you to hell? Immediately I began quoting Him scripture from all over the Bible, quotes from all of the teachers I'd come to revere in the last 3 years. Then the nagging question returned, but it was different this time; Can you give me one reason why I shouldn't send you to hell? My mind went totally blank. I couldn't give Him one reason why He shouldn't send me to hell. It was then He shared the greatest truth I've ever been given with me; The greatest distance in all the world is only 18 inches. That's the distance from a man's head to his heart. Then I finally understood this verse;
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 10:10
When what we believe is determined in our hearts instead of our heads, what we believe will begin to transform our lives. I struggled with my addiction for years until the day that I began to see it the way God saw it; & when I was truly grieved by what I saw, God gradually began to give me the victory over it. When I saw it for what it really was God delivered me from the hold it had on my life. it's the same way with everything else in our lives folks. When we begin to see those things as the enemies they really are, & when we cry out to God for deliverence with our whole heart, that deliverence comes. Why do I believe the things I believe? Because they're gradually transforming my whole life.