I’ve always been a believer. That’s not to say that everything I believed in was always good, always right or always Biblical. But, I realize now that we are all believers at certain times in our lives. The question is: “What are we a believer in?”. As I grew up I had plenty of opportunities to be a believer, with a lot of different beliefs. Most of them centered around my parents, my school friends and the television. And, although I enjoyed having my own set of beliefs, I was never truly content or sure of who I was. From the age of eight until I was around twelve, I was a believer in super heros. Cartoons played a vital role in that. My favorite hero was Superman, “The man of steel!”. Although he could see through walls and lift giant boulders, his flying is what always fascinated me the most, leading me to try it myself: one fearless leap from the top of the jungle gym, only to land flat on my face. Needless to say my fascination with “the man of steel” quickly flew away. The next big influences in shaping my ever-changing set of beliefs were my school friends. This all took place between the ages of fifteen and seventeen. Some of the influences they had on my life were simply being cool and fitting in. I obviously had to try all the latest fads and trends. After all, that’s what the cool kids did. They introduced me to smoking, which didn’t last long for me. They also introduced me to “social drinking”. Nothing too heavy, mind you, just enough to get a light buzz. As time passed, my friends got more and more into the drinking. It wasn’t just “social” anymore. In fact it was blatant alcoholism. They soon started to exclude me because I no longer had a desire to be like them. So, it wasn’t long before I was left basically friendless. All during my life my parents also played a crucial role of “belief-shapers”, especially my dad. It was a belief in verbal and physical violence, which occurred from his excessive use of alcohol. Many times a week he would come home drunk and take out his frustrations on my mom, which eventually landed her in the hospital. Seeing his aggressive behavior over the years made me think that violence was the way to resolve conflicts. So, I started acting out these beliefs on my father for what he did to my mom. Looking back I realize it was only the grace of God that kept me out of prison. It was only after that incident that I really started having thoughts about God. Actually, they were more like questions rather than thoughts. I asked questions like, “If you really are a God of love, how could you let this happen to my mom? She never hurt anyone, never raised her voice at me in anger, never hit me. Why God?”. I also made statements like, “If he is real, why doesn’t he reveal himself to me so I’d know for sure?”. Well, He honored that question. Not really the way I was expecting, but He answered it. God took advantage of my curiosity and my life has never been the same since. The day after I graduated high school there was a knock at my front door. Feelings of guilt, anger, hopelessness and depression had been playing havoc with my mind for a few months by then. I opened the door to see one of my first “friends”. He was the one who introduced me to drinking, then initiated my exclusion from the rest of the guys. I figured his guilty conscience had brought him around to say that he was sorry. Little did I know he had a lot more on his mind than a simple apology. He started telling me how he realized that what he did must have hurt me very much. He said he wished he could go back and change the past. His next statement caught me so off-guard that I had to ask him to repeat himself, which he gladly did. He said, “Even though we can’t change what happened in the past, we can place our lives in the hands of God and allow Him to direct our future.”. For some reason, his statement didn’t offend me. On the contrary, it actually gave me a brief sense of hope. He went on to explain how God had delivered him from his alcoholic lifestyle, which I thought he was doomed to for the rest of his life. He told me how he had found new meaning and purpose in life because of what God had done for him. As I listened intently, he explained how I could receive this new hope and joy, if I’d be willing to trust God. I thought to myself, “Finally, someone who understands what I’m going through. This must be God’s way of revealing Himself to me.”. Not that my friend was God, but somehow I knew that God was using him to answer my questions. We talked back and forth for about two hours. I was finally convinced that this was the answer I had been searching for my entire life. He then lead me in a prayer to ask Jesus into my life, to change me and to give me new hope and joy. Once again, God answered . . . not in a way that I expected Him to, but in much greater ways. As I trusted God to run my life, He set me free from alcoholism and delivered me from the depression and despair I had in my life. Like I said, I’ve always been a believer. But, it wasn’t until I was a believer in God, alone, allowed Him to come and change my life and started living the way He wants me to live that I became truly content and sure of who I was. I’m a new person thanks to the grace and mercy of God and the willingness of someone who boldly shared that message with me. So, if we consider ourselves believers, we need to ask, “What am I a believer in?”. Do we believe that God has the power to change our lives? Do we believe that, because of His love for us, God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins? Do we believe that Jesus rose from the dead three days later and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven? Do we believe that, as the Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23), and that Jesus is the only Way to the Father? If our answers are yes, then what are we doing with those beliefs? Are we keeping them to ourselves or sharing them with others? Are we living our lives for our own pleasures or to bring glory and honor to God? Are we living according to the world or according to the Bible? Being a believer takes a lot more than just believing. It takes obedience to God’s Word. Like the Bible says in 1 John 2:3, “We know that we have come to know God if we obey His commands.”. God doesn’t just want believers. He wants believers who will obey His Word and live according to it.
