Why Do You Believe What You Believe?

Have you ever stopped to wonder why you believe what you believe and how you came to hold those beliefs?

Since you are reading this, I assume you are saved and love the Lord God with all your heart, mind, and soul. But did you know that once you become a believer, it is your responsibility to regularly examine (2 Corinthians 13:5) what you believe about Jesus, the Bible, salvation, gifts, baptism, prayer, healing, a woman’s role in the home, prosperity, women pastors, etc.?

In other words, every single area of your life.

Examining yourself and what you believe is critical is because it’s not enough to say, “I believe this about that” and recite what you’ve been taught. We gather our beliefs from the people we allow to pour into our lives. The more we listen or read from someone, the more we subconsciously absorb their views (Proverbs 12:26).

When we can recite what we have been taught it is called head knowledge. Head knowledge is needed to defend and explain your faith (1 Peter 3:15). But to withstand life’s trials and tribulations, it’s not enough. You need to dig deeper to discover why you believe what you believe. You need to allow head knowledge to become heart knowledge.

It’s biblical to discern by regularly asking yourself:

Do I agree with what this person said (or wrote) or did I simply accept it as fact because I admire them and feel guilty for questioning?
Do I believe certain things because I was taught the Bible means this or that?
Do I believe what I believe because I have learned to search the Scripture for myself?

My Story

My early years with Christ Jesus were spent in a Pentecostal church where our beliefs were shaped. We only listened to like-minded believers and soaked up all that we were hearing like sponges so it didn’t take long to indoctrinate us with their beliefs and ways.

I grew up in a non-practicing Catholic family so this was a drastic change for me. The only time I had heard of a Pentecostal was when someone made fun of them. I didn’t personally know anyone in that denomination but that didn’t bother me. They were nothing like the jokes made about them, and l liked that they seemed to know and live what they believed. I sure didn’t meet too many wish-washy Pentecostals.

Then life happened and we had to miss more than a few weeks of gathering together with our brethren. Because of our situation, we had limited contact with others. Although it was hard at the time, looking back now we can see the hand of God in that situation. We felt “safe” at this church because they always gave Scripture when making a point.

As we continued to read and study apart from the influence of our church, we began to see the Bible in a different light. Instead of studying it each week with the verses given to us in the sermon, we studied on our own. Slowly we began to realize we had been taught to read and interpret Scripture their way (which, of course, supported their beliefs and customs).

Where Is Your Focus?

When you are pointed in a certain direction, you will see what you are told to see. When you feed your mind and spirit with a steady influence all pointing this same way, it doesn’t even dawn on you that there might be a different perspective.

Let me share this analogy with you and it might help you understand what I am saying. Before we bought our black Jeep, we rarely saw Jeeps and can’t recall seeing a single black one. The moment we bought our Jeep, we began to see black Jeeps everywhere. Black Jeeps were always around, we just weren’t looking for them. Once our focus was pointed in that direction, what we had missed before became obvious.

Here is another example. One day my husband was driving down the road praying. He was aware that he always looked to the scenery on the right side of this particular road. One day he noticed something on the left side. He mentioned to God how awesome that thing was (on the left side of the road) and felt the Holy Spirit reprimand him saying that thing had always been there waiting to bless him but my husband had missed it because he chose to focus only on one side.

Ripping Off The Band-Aid

Eventually, we left that denomination because our beliefs were no longer in alignment with theirs. Friend, that wasn’t a rash decision but a long, slow, painful process.

My husband and I would go to church then search the Scriptures for that topic ourselves when we got home (without using the Scripture provided in the service). Not to prove them wrong. We didn’t have a vendetta or an ax to grind.

Please don’t think that I am picking on Pentecostals. That just happens to be the denomination we started our Christian journey with. All denominations have their own take on things. In this regard, what the denomination says doesn’t matter because every denomination out there can interpret Scripture with their “bend” on things. They see what they want to see. What matters is what God says about a subject in His Holy Word.

For years we had based our beliefs on our Sunday and Wednesday sermon notes. That just didn’t cut it for us anymore. We were no longer satisfied to regurgitate someone’s interpretation but had to seek and know for ourselves. That desire can only come from the Holy Spirit!

This journey has been long (years!). We would joke about having to deprogram ourselves with God’s truth. It hasn’t been easy because we didn’t realize how deeply those early beliefs were ingrained deep in our thinking. Some things stood out right away as red flags (such as speaking things into existence).

But other weeds had gone deeper and would unexpectedly pop up hidden in the shadow of biblical truth. Take healing for example. We were taught that if you were right with God, and commanded the sickness to go, it would immediately depart. Every. Single. Time. If not, God is either punishing you or there is sin in your life.

But the biblical truth is that although God desires to heal everyone, He also allows and uses sickness for particular purposes (Exodus 4:11). We are told throughout Scripture to expect trials and frustrations (1 Peter 4:12) of many different kinds.

It’s also biblical truth that being sick isn’t an automatic sign of sin in your life (look at Job). We can pray many times over and ask for healing (look at Hannah) but healing is in His timing as He wills, not as we command it to happen, who prays for us, how many people lay hands on us, or how much oil is poured over us.

Do Your Own Homework

Our heavenly Father wants us to know His truth and that has to start with examining what we are speaking and believing. What we believe will determine where we put our faith.

Whatever topic you are curious about, a slow and systematic study using just your Bible and Bible study resources will allow you to begin seeing for yourself what is of God and what is of man.

It’s almost become a knee-jerk reaction with so many Christians that when a subject comes up, they automatically default to someone’s YouTube channel or commentary or blog instead of picking up their Bible to see for themselves. Friend, that is an extremely dangerous place to put yourself.

We need to respect other Christians but God doesn’t want us to idolize or worship them, even if they are popular, in leadership, or we think they are more spiritual than we are. When we turn to them instead of God and His Word, we are subconsciously telling God that we believe them more than Him.

Do yourself a favor and don’t allow that to continue. Examine what you believe and why you believe it. Always take the time to examine everything you hear. Do your own word studies, your own cross-referencing with other Scriptures, your own historical studies of places and things you read about in Scripture.

One of the ways I do this is to verse map passages of Scripture. If studying that way is not something you are interested in, find a different study method that works for you. Not someone’s study that you follow along with but a study that allows you to get into Scripture without being spoon-fed. That is very important!

Psalm 34:8 says to taste and see that the Lord is good. The only way we can know the Lord Almighty is through Scripture. We must ingest or consume (taste) Scripture to know that our God is good. The world sure won’t tell us that God is good. Do you realize that tasting is something nobody can do for you? Someone can give you their opinion of what they taste, but they can’t taste for you.

So let me ask you again, friend. What are your beliefs about Jesus, the Bible, salvation, spiritual gifts, spiritual fruit, baptism, prayer, healing, a woman’s role in the home, prosperity, women pastors, etc.?