Faith Versus Belief
They are not the same thing
I dreamed heaven was visible in the sky. I looked up, and there it was, a castle in the clouds. In my dream, I realized it had always been there, and I had just never noticed it.
You know how some dreams just really make you feel? This was one of those dreams — I felt such a longing to go to the castle. It was home, and my loved ones were there.
When I awoke, I wondered how life would be different if such a thing were true. Would we still struggle with our faith if we could see heaven looking down on us? Would there even be a need for faith?
The Israelites melted their jewelry into a golden calf even as the presence of God thundered on the mountain above them. Would we still struggle with our faith in full view of heaven? Oh, I’m sure of it. It wouldn’t be the same doubts that we wrestle with now, but I’m sure we’d come up with new doubts to burden ourselves with. We’d have no trouble believing in God, perhaps, but we would likely still struggle to put our faith in him.
And this is where faith differs from belief. Belief is a mental assent that something is true. Faith puts its trust in that truth. Belief requires no response. Faith is a response. We can firmly believe in the existence of God and of heaven and still struggle because belief isn’t faith.
Faith changes us. Belief doesn’t.
If faith doesn’t result in a changed life, then it isn’t really faith. It is mere belief. This is what James is referring to when he says, “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’” (James 2:17–18).
It’s like my relationship with water. I believe I need to drink more water, but that belief doesn’t translate into action. It has no power to improve my health.
I believe a lot of things that have absolutely no impact on how I live my life. I believe that refined sugar is really bad for me, but that belief has no power when I’m faced with a box of Cosmic Brownies.
The good news is that we only need a little bit of faith — about the size of a mustard seed. This is just enough faith to throw up our hands and say, “God, help!” In Romans 10:13–14, Paul says, “for ‘whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed…” Belief is necessary for faith, but it is not sufficient. Faith starts in belief, but it goes a step further. Faith inspires us to “call on the name of the Lord,” to initiate a relationship with God.
If we could see heaven looking down on us, it would be easier to believe — but we would still need to take that extra step of faith, to move beyond mere mental assent into a trusting relationship with God.
