Belief on Behavior

My pastor made a statement during yesterday's message that I would like to elaborate on today. He said "behavior changes when belief changes." But what does this really mean? Does it mean our belief in God? Does it mean our belief in the Bible? For years, even while living in a life of blatant sin, I always BELIEVED in God. I always BELIEVED scripture to be the absolute word of God. However, my behavior did not exactly line up with what I claimed to believe. Saying we believe in something does not necessarily mean we are followers or that our behavior matches up with what we believe. At least not when it is our head belief.

Scripture tells us in James 2:19 (NIV): You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.

Saying we believe in God does not really prove anything. Even the demons believe. Not only do they believe, but they shudder. They recognize the amazing, absolute power of the one true God.

The behavior changes when the belief travels from our heads to our hearts. Our behavior changes when we not only read the word and commands of God, but we read them and realize He is speaking directly to US. My whole life I have been pro-life. Please know I'm not saying this to start a debate or have argumentative emails back debating this issue. I have always believed that no matter what the circumstances from our viewpoint, God is the creator of all life and He does not make any mistakes. I've heard all arguments supporting "choice" and a recurrent one is "you can't legislate morality." True. But we are called to show the love of Christ and to be witnesses for Him. It's by showing this love and it moving into a woman's heart that her morality begins to change. We are not to condone or support what the bible calls immoral. It was this belief in life that even when I became pregnant out of wedlock...twice....that I gave birth to my daughters. I know not everyone made the same choice when faced with the decision and thankfully we serve a God of grace who sees no sin as being worse than another. His grace and forgiveness is available to all who are truly repentant.

The reason my behavior changed is because the belief finally moved from my head to my heart. The prior behavior was a result of the belief that I did not deserve what God told me He had for me in a mate. It led to me compromising myself sexually and finding myself in the place of having to choose life or death for my daughters. Once my heart beliefs changed, I no longer saw a need for inappropriate male attention. I no longer saw a need for drinking alcohol to the point of being drunk. I no longer saw an unlovable single mom of two. I saw a daughter of the King Jesus. I saw the woman He willingly died a brutal death for. I realized the words on the pages of my bible were a love letter written to ME.

God has given me a sometimes burdensome gift of compassion. I see women in situations and instead of seeing the visible, I see what is invisible. I see the little girls they once were, but because of mistreatment by the world, they don't believe they are valuable. The woman walking around in the short skirts with cleavage for days? While many judge her and think "she needs to put some clothes on!", I see a little girl looking for attention in the wrong ways because she has never known love of a pure kind. She doesn't believe in her heart that there is a Daddy in heaven who made her beautiful without the adornments of the world. She has a Daddy who created her for something so much more than what she is settling for. She has a Daddy who is delighted in her when she sees herself as He made her to be.

Maybe she is you. Is your belief in God just in your head or is it in your heart? Do you read scripture and think "that's great, but it's not for me. I've already sinned to much." If so, then you are exactly who He is looking to use. You are exactly who He came to save. God is ready for you to see yourself as He made you to be. Your Daddy is waiting on you to grow your belief.