Some people will believe anything, right? I mean, I know it is fun to watch your little brother run around in the woods chasing a snipe. But it is not really as much fun when you are on the other side of the trick, is it?
Sometimes it is easy for us to believe information fed to us by those we trust. We also tend to believe whatever seems to be common knowledge and follow the common practices of those around us even when we don’t completely understand them.
We follow these practices to fit in, and we are conditioned to believe common knowledge because it must be common knowledge for a reason, right? And the reason we readily accept information from those we trust is because we…trust…them. Trust is a great thing. I actually believe we need to trust people more, especially those that we share our spiritual journeys with.
However, we need to be careful when we start blindly accepting what people tell us. Our relationships with God are too important for us to take someone else’s word about how to live them out, even the word of those we trust. Yes, we should listen to Christian counsel. Yes, we should study sermon notes. Yes, we should read books by Christian authors (like my book later this year).
Yet, we should also be reading the Bible and spending time in prayer to allow the Holy Spirit to help us discern whether information is truth or needs further investigation. We need to take the time to actually question those things that are presented to us as absolutes. We need to make sure that we believe something because our experiences tell us it is true and not because we heard it from somebody else.
Many people would tell you that questioning your beliefs is a sign of insecurity or weakness. They may tell you that showing any form of doubt is detrimental to your faith. I beg to differ. I believe that if you take the time to investigate what the Bible says about certain issues, you pray for guidance on those issues, you read books about them, and talk to other Christians about them, you will ultimately have stronger faith because you know why you believe the things that you believe.
Ask questions. Read more. Prayer harder. These are the things that make your faith strong.