Fishing or not?

These people say they like fishing, but they're not fishing...they're watching. Off in the distance are boats full of people who like fishing, really like fishing...and they are fishing.

Living out what you believe is not hard to do. It’s as easy as breathing. We do it everyday, in every way, because it’s a natural law, like gravity…it just is. Believing, or changing your belief system, now that’s the trick.

How do we know what we believe? Well, what do we do? What exactly is it that we DO? Habits and beliefs are very close cousins. They can both be grown and changed, good and bad. They both take the same amount of time and energy…good or bad.

Habits can be passive, simply the way we were raised, our culture. So we can have some really great habits, like going to church, reading our Bibles, talking sweetly, doing good deeds, giving, sharing.

But beliefs grow out of need. First you have to need…things like love, provision (food, shelter, clothing), relationships, ... Then desire is born. Believing starts with desire. We see something…hear some sound…touch someone…taste something…feel an emotion…and desire is born and begins to grow.
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message,
and the message is heard through the word of Christ. Rom 10:17-18 NIV

Once desire is born, like a newborn baby, it seeks to satisfy it’s hunger, so it begins looking for ways to be satisfied. We begin to noticing this object of our desire everywhere we turn. Soon we are looking and searching for ways to satisfy that desire. Finally, something happens and the desire is satisfied…for the moment. And if it was pleasurable, if it fulfilled a need, then we’re hooked…addicted. The next time we “need” we remember, and off we go again, pursuing that which will “please” us, that which will satisfy our desire.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
I will be found by you," declares the LORD,
"and will bring you back from captivity. Jer 29:13-14 NIV

How can we increase our desire for ‘God things’? How can we increase and strengthen our faith? How do we get new beliefs…ones that we see in others and want to have ourselves? How do we walk in what we say we believe?

We have to need it! We have to desire it! We have to pursue it! And once you have experienced the presence of God nothing else we do…it’s more addicting that Turkish Delight. Why else would Moses spend 40 days and nights alone with God on a mountain? Can you imagine doing that with or for anyone else? I don’t think we’d come back with our faces glowing;) But the Presence of God…
I desire to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart." Ps 40:8 NIV

How can we get His law in our hearts? We have to read it, meditate on it, practice it. But all of that will be ‘works’ if you don’t experience the power and the presence of God. It would be like reading a book about love… interesting, fascinating…but not even close to actually experiencing God. (There’s a whole series on that…Experiencing God.) How privileged we are because God knows we can’t do it ourselves, so He says,
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives;
he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Matt 7:7-8 NIV


In the same way that salmon swim upstream to spawn, we DO the things we believe. We need something and so desire to satisfy the need is born, then the search is on…how will I satisfy my need? How will you satisfy your need? Are you going to fish or not?