Why I Believe, What I Believe

This is an essay I had to write for my worldview class, answering the questions, "What do you fundamentally believe to be true? Why do you believe it to be true? and How did you come to believe that?"

My Worldview: What I see as essential to Life

In order to answer the question ‘what do I fundamentally believe to be true?’, we must start at the beginning and first ask what is truth? I believe that the very essence and meaning of truth is found in the character and being of God (“God” being embodied by the Trinity; the Father, Son [Jesus Christ] and Holy Spirit). Jesus says in the Bible that the very reason He came (becoming both fully human, and God - through the Son, Jesus Christ) was to testify to the truth. “… In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.” (John 18: 37 NIV Trans.) Truth is, what is. It can be defined as reality.

The next question to ask is, well, what is reality? It is what is really, real; what actually happened. A lot of people have a different definition of what reality looks like to them, and truth could then be seen as relative. Truth cannot be relative it must be absolute. Relative truth is someone’s perception of the truth. It doesn’t change that fact that truth is truth. It’s absolute, because if everything were relative, we would have no starting point, no definition to explain why evil exists, or why good does. If truth were relative and we all had our own reality, there would be no purpose or meaning to life and chaos would reign supreme. (The chaos we see now, is the result from evil being present in this world and corrupting what was made originally good).

All around us, I see order everywhere in the design of things, from the way the seasons change and in every aspect of nature, to the basic instincts that every human possesses. Something or someone must have designed this. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” (Psalm 19:1 NIV Trans.) Random, mindless, relative, invention does not produce order. That is why I believe there is a God. And through God, I find truth, and through truth; reality. If I want a correct worldview, or a correct reality, I must find it in the character of God.
To find truth in God’s character, I must come to know Him. I understand that we can find it by the studying of His word; the Bible, and through His Holy Spirit, which dwells in the believer.

That is why I base the fundamental truths in my life off of the Bible. It is the authority in my life, which directs how I should live and what I should believe.
If I could sum up everything I believe in one statement, it would be that – Jesus is life. Period. He is the very reason I can get up in the morning and have purpose. It is because of who He is, what He represents, and how He has shown Himself in my life that my life has any meaning at all. Anything outside of Jesus is simply details. Small details that can be traced back to Him.

The Lord sought me out, and found me. This is why I believe that all of my life should be centered around and in Him.

“God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'”
(Acts 17:27-28 NIV Trans.)

He also not only gave me life, but life abundantly and to the full.

My life verse is: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10 NIV Trans.) He came bringing me full life – not a life where I need to operate in survival mode, but a life that is rich, full, abundant and complete in Him. I want to spend the rest of my life learning what it means to have life abundantly in Him. What more could I ask for?

Because I fundamentally believe that Jesus is and should be the essence of life its self, my worldview reflects that. Any opinions, beliefs, ideals and actions that I take, I try to run through the filter of what it means to have Jesus as the center of life. Do I always succeed in imitating the Lord, and making correct decisions based off of what I believe? No. But this is what I strive for – to be like Christ and let Him have permission to effect, control, invade, change and then empower every area of my life, till my desires and will meet His. How I look at the world is directly effected by this belief.

The process of how I came to believe that all of this is true, would take a book to share, not an essay limited to three pages. In summary, I would say there are three main reasons why I believe that Jesus is life. It started with the way I was raised, and then grew to be my beliefs, through logic, (it just made sense) and through the wooing of the Holy Spirit. You can believe something and “know” it intellectually, but at some point a divine leap (through the Holy Spirit) must occur, between faith and logic.

One such instance of this happened this summer. I read in scripture what it means to be baptized by the Holy Spirit, to be filled with Him, in such a way that it over flows into your life, through the gifts of the Spirit listed in Corinthians. I believed it to be true because I believe the word of God to be true and had witnessed it in the lives of others. To my logical brain, the gifts of the Spirit made no sense, speaking in tongues? Prophesy? I was a big skeptic.

For months I questioned, thought and prayed about what it would mean to have an impartation of the Holy Spirit (apart from the initial impartation we get a salvation). It finally came down to faith. Did I really believe what the Bible said? I chose to believe what the Word said, and prayed that the Lord would give me more of Himself – and the power to live a more abundant life in Him.

He came, and being baptized in and learning to walk in, the Holy Spirit has been one of the sweetness times of my life. This was the leap between logic and faith (belief), for me. (2 Cor. 3:16 NIV Trans.) says it well “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” It wasn’t until I chose to believe, that I finally understood. After I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, I understood it.

I know it to be true because, scripture tells us to “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”(Psalm 38:4 NIV Trans.) Many, many times I have tested and seen that the Lord is good. He is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do!

I realize, I hold this to be true a lot from personal experience, but the experience was based off of true reality. (There isn’t time to even begin to attempt to prove why I believe the Bible is true, that would be another paper entirely!) But if the Bible is true, because it is the word of God, and His character is true, than I can and do believe what the Bible says is truth, and try to live by it. Jesus is life and He came to give us that life abundantly.

If you have never sat down and asked yourself what your world view is, I would highly recommend it! The world and yourself need to know why you believe what you believe, because it will and does effect how you see and live life!