Belief is a word often used in today’s culture--especially Christian culture. It makes sense, as it’s used so often in the Bible. However, when thinking about what the word “belief” actually means, I struggle to find justice in the way it is used most often, especially "Believers" of Jesus. Today when people say they ‘believe’ something, they usually mean ‘to think certain thoughts in their heads.’ That’s what believing in something means, right? You believe it accurately reflects reality; it’s true. But the Greek word translated as ‘belief’, πιστός, means a good deal more. It connotes leaning on the thing which you believe. Trusting it is truth, to the extent that you act in accordance with it being true. Like a man standing, legs crossed, his forearm bracing his weight against a stone wall. He believes the stone wall is there and then acts like it is.
It’s like the difference between believing your friend is a responsible driver and actually handing him your keys so he can borrow your car for the weekend while you’re out of town. Your belief is expressed in trust when you hand those keys over with confidence in your friend. The active handing-over-of-your-keys kind of trust is the biblical word most often translated as belief or faith.
Trust is the expression of a belief that has made its way down from the head to the heart. Not coincidentally, this happens to be where meaningful relationship also resides. This is the space where the God of Heaven desires to live, and to thereby experientially know you and be known by you. For we are meant to live intimately with our God (Micah 6:8, Gen. 5:22, Gen. 3:8, Matt. 7:23). The way we do that is by trusting in him.
When you believe in God, you don't merely receive him into your mind, but through your mind down to your heart where your spirit learns to mingle with his. The only way anything gets to the most significant places in us is by the act of trusting. Often times we let ideas sit in the cooking pot of our mind till they’re burned. Ideas are like soup in that regard, we add in different perspectives from varying sides of fences and put it through testing heat. Eventually, when the flavors have simmered together into a delicious curry it needs to be eaten. That’s the only way it offers sustenance. Otherwise it will eventually just turn to an unappetizing burnt glob of gunk that Fido will even turn his nose up at! No one wants that to be the stuff in their head. Stepping out in trust (faith) is what builds in us meaningful connections with people, God, and truth.
Let’s eat our words, eat the ideas we profess and ponder and let them nourish our lives and those of the people around us. Maybe that’s a helpful measure for deciding what to mentally consume--how nourishing it will be to our selves and the selves around us.
