Mental Belief or Complete Trust?

When our children were young, they sometimes stood at the top of the stairs in our house and begged, “Daddy, catch me!” They were absolutely confident that I would catch them when they leapt into my arms. They did not simply believe in my existence, but completely trusted me. Many people today claim to believe in God. But there is a huge difference between mental belief and trust.

The Bible says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). What does it mean to “believe in Him”?

Believing that God exists is a good place to start, but even the demons believe in God (James 2:19). A true Christian totally trusts and surrenders everything to the Lord—not just mentally believes.

There’s a story of a tightrope walker who walked a tightrope across Niagara Falls. He asked the audience if they believed he could push a wheelbarrow across the rope and they answered, “Yes!” But, when he told them he needed someone to sit in the wheelbarrow, no one volunteered. Their belief did not involve total trust!

You cannot straddle the fence in the kingdom of God. God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die for our sins. God’s Word says we must believe in Him (totally trust Him) to have eternal life.

You might say, “Well, as long as I am sincere.” It’s not good enough to be sincere. Some people are sincerely wrong. I once thought I was driving in the right direction on a highway, but I was going in the wrong direction and ended up many miles from my destination. I was very sincere, but sincerely wrong.

Let’s trust in Jesus Christ as Lord—supreme ruler of our lives—and enter into a personal love relationship with Him.