belief = something else

acts 16:31 "believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved..."

this post will focus basically entirely on the word "believe" just so that you who are reading this will be aware.

webster's new world dictionary definition of believe: to take as true, real; to trust a statement or promise of (a person); to suppose or think; to have faith

vine's concise dictionary of the bible: greek word pisteuo meaning to believe, to be persuaded of, to place confidence in, to trust, signifies reliance upon, not mere credence.

while i would say that these definitions are similar, the english definition is slightly misleading to the point of the verse. i would truly love to unpack this word and shed some light on what i believe this verse is meaning.

i have no idea how long i have been saved and if you were to hear my testimony, you would understand why i have a hard time pin-pointing my conversion. however, i do know that i have been saved for the past year and a half and i have been putting in quite a bit of study time since then, trying to make up for wasted, lost time in my life. in the time, i have yet to read, heard, or experienced anything that is contrary to what i am thinking about this passage.
in salvation, we have something glorious, something that we should not want to give away for any reason, a thing that brings us untamable joy and assurance, a relationship with Christ.
i enjoy sitting a sipping at a nice, hot cup of coffee, i like the taste of it and i really like the caffeine that is in it that wakes me up so that i can actually function through out the day. i bring this up because, while this is simplified, Christ should be the same way for us. we should crave those quiet time with Him, He should be our sustenance for the day, that thing that gets us through a long hard day. He is always with us through prayer and meditation on scripture.
there is only one way to get through life, present and eternal, and that way is through Christ. as acts 16:31 says, all we must do it to believe on Christ. yet what does that constitute. there are no qualifiers or limiters in this verse on this phrase so that has to mean that we must believe on Christ to the fullest extent. not only that He created the world, but that He can and is the only one to save us. i think that many of us see both of those though and we can reckon with that and still live life basically the way that we want. however, Christ doesn't want us to live the life that we want, He wants us to live the life that He wants (because it is best for us but i won't get into that in this post).
God created us in His image. He created us for His glory. how do we bring glory to Him? by worshiping, praising, and living for Him, but making Him our all. this is what we are to do. when we say that we believe in Him (a believe that leads to eternal life), we are also saying that we believe that He is the only person in whom we can find enjoyment.
He must be the only thing that we find joy in. this doesn't mean that all we do is read our bibles and pray all day, but that in everything we do, we realize that it is truly from God, that we wouldn't have it unless He gave it to us, and we are enjoying it in a way that would please Him, and praise Him and thank Him for it. it is not enough to live a life that upholds the law of scripture if we do not have the attitude of scripture as well. if you up hold every outward law, yet partake in every inward law, then you are a white-washed tomb, full of dead men's bones, on the slow and easy path to eternity to hell.
wake up and smell the roses and the sweet life that could be yours in Christ. this world only looks appealing until you've tasted, chewed, and digested the goodness of Christ.


(while writing this, my mind wasn't working well, and i was slightly, completely scatter-brained so hopefully this makes sense.)