Why Believe?

D L Henderson
7 min readOct 4, 2024

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Why Believe?

October 4, 2024

It’s tough to believe God, Jesus, and the Bible… not sometimes, but all the time. Why? Our hearts are hard and our minds are closed and our experiences are limited to what we can see and touch.

Simple enough answer?

Still, life is not always a matter of simplicity. It usually ends up being quite complicated, doesn’t it?

Still and all, in many ways we ourselves make life complicated, and we often don’t even consider any right or wrong construct. At times, we even quickly make decisions just for convenience sake. Shopping, for example, as we make snap decisions on what to buy because somebody or something has “sold us” on the product. We believe in its value.

Believing something just doesn’t work in the same way or as easily when it comes to believing God, Jesus, and the Bible…

So, let me start out by discussing this quote from the Bible:

“… righteousness is given through {the faithfulness of} Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between {people and cultures}, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” — Romans 3:22–24, New International Version {with my edits influenced by the Greek text}.

There’s a lot to discuss there. So, first, does anyone believe that basic assertion that we’ve all made mistakes — some more serious than others — those mistakes which the Bible calls sin? Sure, but until we are enabled to go beyond what we can see and touch, we are unable to resolve that dilemma of always making mistakes.

However, in the verse I quoted, the Bible claims that Jesus has made a way to do exactly that… how we can get over the hump, in a manner of speaking.

In this essay, I would like to point out the lack of effectiveness in intellectual acknowledgment of the Bible’s veracity — that is, its truthfulness, accuracy, and reliability — also comparing it to a change of heart generated by turning to God with one’s whole being and followed by the pursuit of continuing mindfulness of the Gospel’s message.

To put it straight: That ain’t easy.

I can acknowledge that this is a difficult concept to receive. It’s not an easy path to follow. We have to give it some serious thought.

So, let me try to put it another way.

First, we have come to use organs in the body as centers for our different characteristics. For example, when someone is “lily livered,” the liver is associated with courage or lack thereof. When we say someone has “no backbone,” we associate our skeleton with the willingness to stand up for ourselves — similar to the liver’s attributes. There are, of course others, like when a person “lacks heart” to mean lacking courage and perseverance. Or this, which is kind of a generalized association, “He has no guts.” Well, I think you follow my meaning.

Regardless, the Greek culture associated the mind with the inner man, while the Semite culture associated the heart as the center of the inner person. It seems to me that in both examples, the inner person is accepted as the most important and essential quality and often is referred to as the human “spirit” or “soul.”

I would surmise that that has made the distinction of emphasis of the two cultures in their general existential and philosophical pursuits between what a person thinks, what a person feels, and what a person does — or in another way of speaking, their temperament, their sensibilities, and their outlook on life. What it boils down to is choosing what to believe.

Then, what difference does it make? Maybe it matters in our approach to God, Jesus, and the Bible, and possibly in deciding to make a commitment.

I would say, it makes a great deal of difference, because it affects our essential response to the Gospel and the entire Bible.

Believing the Gospel of Jesus demands a response. First, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” In other words, turn away from what you are doing to what God is doing.

Also, this follow up is required: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” Turn to doing God’s work. This precept is set up in Matthew, chapter 3, and here is a clarification of what God’s work is like, as expressed in Micah 6:8: “He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Therefore, a change of mind and a change of heart and a change of behavior are all requisites when you start to believe.

You don’t have to be apprehensive, however, because there is plenty of guidance and encouragement in the Bible — in fact, an everflowing stream for you to support your decision to believe.

All in all, in the end, the decision to believe God, Jesus,and the Bible will explode with revelation, because Reality will set in.

So, regarding the importance of believing: “Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”Hebrews 11:6. What this means is a person has to start somewhere, and this is the starting line. Please, don’t trip over it.

Besides all that, the change of mind cannot be shallow. Turning to God requires deeper thought than, say, being able to quote Scriptures. It requires self examination. It requires recognizing one’s need for change. It requires the willingness to change. But the hardest part remains to be accepting Jesus as your personal Savior, because, I suppose, our egos get in the way. This presents the most difficult of challenges. We have to admit to ourselves, that we have fallen short of the target, we have missed the mark which God has set before all Mankind… Don’t sin. Don’t disobey the Ten Commandments. Do no harm. Don’t hurt yourself or others.

Admitting failure needs some courage, doesn’t it?

Worse, I suppose, is the specter of having to admit your shortcomings to God. Oh, my!

Unfortunately our pride (and I would say, it is our false pride) gets in the way of any progress we could be making to come to believe.

An intellectual discipline will always miss the mark. We think we are deep wells of knowledge and extensive wisdom. Well, while we look into ourselves why not look around at what all our knowledge and wisdom have produced… But I digress…

At first glance, it appears to be easy enough. All the same, what makes it so difficult for us is our intellectual pride. This is why the apostle Paul wrote this challenge, “Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has {invited}, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” — 1 Corinthians 1:20–25, NIV. {my edit from the Greek}

I want to emphasize in particular verse 21, acknowledging the difficulty I am referring to: “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.”

In short, our intellectual pride stands in the way, blocking a favorable decision to admit that we aren’t all that smart or wise and need to turn around to Jesus to find true knowledge and effective wisdom.

As for a more heartfelt psychology, the same thing is true: Even in personal relationships, we want to see signs of a person’s love and commitment before we give our hearts away. We need to believe.

For The same reason, God gave us this gift

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only {begotten} Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” — 1 John 4:9&10, NIV {my edit for clarity}.

He first loved us. Think about that.

Reach out to Jesus. He’s reaching out for you.

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D L Henderson

Born 1950; HS 1968; Born again 1972; Cornell ILR; Steward, Local President/Business Agent; Husband, father, grandfather; winner/loser/everything in between