Don't Stop Believing

One of the greatest powers lies within each of us. It starts in our minds and resides in our hearts, we live it. This is what gives us some of our most well known stories of inspiration, and destruction. Belief. What you believe directly influences your behaviors. Here's an example:

Numbers 13 (NLT)

Twelve Scouts Explore Canaan

¹ The Lord now said to Moses, ² “Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes.” ³ So Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He sent out twelve men, all tribal leaders of Israel, from their camp in the wilderness of Paran. ⁴ These were the tribes and the names of their leaders:

Tribe — Leader
Reuben — Shammua son of Zaccur
⁵ Simeon — Shaphat son of Hori
⁶ Judah — Caleb son of Jephunneh
⁷ Issachar — Igal son of Joseph
⁸ Ephraim — Hoshea (Joshua) son of Nun
⁹ Benjamin — Palti son of Raphu
¹⁰ Zebulun — Gaddiel son of Sodi
¹¹ Manasseh son of Joseph — Gaddi son of Susi
¹² Dan — Ammiel son of Gemalli
¹³ Asher — Sethur son of Michael
¹⁴ Naphtali — Nahbi son of Vophsi
¹⁵ Gad — Geuel son of Maki
¹⁶ These are the names of the men Moses sent out to explore the land.
¹⁷ Moses gave the men these instructions as he sent them out to explore the land: “Go north through the Negev into the hill country. ¹⁸ See what the land is like, and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹ See what kind of land they live in. Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls, or are they unprotected like open camps? ²⁰ Is the soil fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Do your best to bring back samples of the crops you see.” (It happened to be the season for harvesting the first ripe grapes.)

²⁵ After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned ²⁶ to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. ²⁷ This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. ²⁸ But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! ²⁹ The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea^[a] and along the Jordan Valley.”
³⁰ But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”
³¹ But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” ³² So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. ³³ We even saw giants^[b] there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”

In this biblical account we see two different beliefs, and how they directly effected their actions. Caleb believed in God's promise that they would reside in the promised land that they just explored for 40 days. Most would describe what he said to be brave, courageous, and bold.
Then the negative creeps in. The other belief has already accepted defeat before ever trying. I've heard those that believed this described as cowards, weak, and forgetful of God's promise. And because their belief about the outcome of the situation was negative and directly influenced their actions to not enter in, that generation never got to see the promised land, only more wandering in the desert.

Their belief effected their emotions, which effected their report to Moses.


Belief->Emotion->Behavior

Beliefs come from all over, our parents, friends, siblings, church, work, situations, hollywood, doctors, books, magazines, oh! and God. There are many more, but we live off of these. Humans are belief beings.

For Christians, our beliefs should be biblically based because we 'believe' that the bible is the ultimate truth. Yet so many of us are only knowledgeable of it, rather than believing in it. A belief can be defined as an assumption that you hold to be true. Unfortunately, most of our beliefs are developed well before an age of spiritual maturity, apart from truth. Children learn by watching, imitating, and essentially become what they see. If this is developed from family, peer, and media interaction that does not model the truth of Christ, we are growing up independently, only to rely on ourselves. If we don't believe in the truth, we are believing in lies. Either what you believe was developed by God, the Father of Truth, or satan, the father of lies and ruler of the earth we live on.

Complete the following sentences

I would be more successful if......

I would be happier if.....

I could never be happy if....

I could feel more secure if....

I would feel more peaceful if....

Now pick one of those and identify the belief in your answer. Now think about the emotions connected to that, and the actions that follow. See?

I'll do one for you just in case you didn't get it.

I would feel more peaceful if.....I was perfect.

Belief: I'm inadequate, I'll never measure up, I'm not perfect (negative).
Emotions: Anxiety, self-hatred, disappointment, defeated.
Actions: I'm a known over achiever that has literally run myself into the ground countless of times to the point of creating health conditions because I am still trying to achieve perfection....

If our beliefs are not based upon truth, they will most likely be negative.

How do we change that? By the renewing of our minds. "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..." Romans 12:2
This process of renewal is not about just replacing negatives thoughts with positive ones. It involves relating to God and depending on Him to reveal the lies and teach us what is true. Seems like a daunting task, but it really isn't.

The first step is recognizing the lies you believe and rejecting them. The next part is the most difficult in my opinion, replacing the lies with the truth (God's word) and redirecting our thoughts to reflect our new set of beliefs. I find that the hardest because it takes time and I am extremely hard on myself if I mess up. But you know what, it's ok if you have a mess up. You just have to try your very best, you will get there.

Next time you do something and your wondering why or someone is asking you why, analyze your beliefs. Or maybe you've been feeling the same way about a situation, person, or even yourself for a long time. Write it out, figure out what it is you are believing and how it's effecting your actions, and change it. Do not be defined by lies, they only bring bondage.

"Search me O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way." Psalm 139:23-24