At first glance, you might be considering what your doctrine is in light of this question: What Do You Believe? And while it is extremely important to have good sound doctrine, so that you are grounded and settled in the truth of God's word, primarily I am asking you another question. What's in your heart! How do you see yourself, your future, your world? Do you see it through the eyes of faith? Do you see it through the knowledge of God's great love? Do you see it through the many promises of God for your life? How you see your life will determine how you live your life.

In recent months a national lending institution has made inroads into our thinking through their promotional logo: What's In Your Wallet? They want you to believe that what you have in your wallet is what will secure you and give you advantages financially. If you have their card, then all will be well, but if not, better watch out. If you have ever heard this advertisement, you know the tone and voicing of it is forceful and confronting.

Please understand I am not promoting this card. But it makes a very good parable about the importance about forcefully confronting “What’s In Your Heart!” and “What Do You Believe!” Unlike “What's in your wallet?”, what is in our hearts and what we believe does form and shape our life view, our expectations, our aspirations, and our life accomplishments. It determines our level of influence, the abundance of our fruitfulness, and our communion with our Heavenly Father. In every fundamental way, what is in our hearts and what we believe frames the world we live in.

Consider this:
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. (Proverbs 23:7) A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. (Matthew 12:35)

Our life view comes out of what we believe to be true in our hearts. It may not be good, but it is what we believe, so we live according to what we believe. The good news is: we are not consigned by God to live with our present heart condition. He is all about the heart changing business. He that formed us and redeemed us through the Lord Jesus Christ understands perfectly that we are in great need of heart changes and mind renewals if we are to live according to His greatest glory and blessings. He is all about changes of the heart and mind because he knows that we are subject to how we think and what we believe.

...be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:23)

...do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2)

My concern is that too many of God's people are conformed to and limited by what they have already experienced. So their belief system has been affected. But with God's grace and faithful work in our lives, there is not one of us that has to live our life by what our current belief system is telling us can and won't be. It can be changed. And as what we believe in our heart changes and lines up to the life of God in His Word and Spirit, we can and will break out of our current life views into new and fulfilling futures. We will fulfill that good and perfect will of God for our lives.

It is my sincere prayer that we will all fight the good fight of faith and lay hold of those things that the Lord has laid hold of us for; that we will continually give ourselves to overthrowing anything in our hearts that limit us to less than what the Lord has designed for us; that we will let faith arise, attack the negative and unbelieving attitudes and win new ground; and that we will have our life view conformed to the life view God has given us through Jesus Christ our Lord.