A.W. Tozer said: “What comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.” Perception is reality. My reality may be true or false, but the way I perceive that reality is truth to me. The Bible says that “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he…” (Proverbs 23:7). If what I think determines who I am, then I better make sure that what I’m thinking is based on solid truth according to an authority that is absolutely reliable.
All believing involves thinking, but not all thinking is believing. From a biblical point of view, to believe means “to cling to, trust in, rely upon, put your whole weight upon.” To believe means “to put feet on” what you think. For instance, suppose there is a pond covered in ice. Just to think that the ice is strong enough support your weight is not biblical belief but merely mental assent. You demonstrate true belief by acting on what you say you believe by walking across the pond. Henry Blackaby, author of Experiencing God, says that what you do after God presents truth to you reveals whether you believe it or not.
Faith (biblical belief) is only as good and reliable as its source. The ice on the pond could be ten feet thick, but it still will not support your weight if you don’t choose to step out upon it. On the other hand, you can have all the faith in the world that a quarter inch of ice on the pond is sufficient to support you, and you will still sink like a rock the minute you step on it. Understand? It’s not the amount of faith you have, but the reliability of the object on which you place your faith. Jesus said that we could move mountains if we only had faith the size of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20). Mountain-moving faith depends upon the Source, the God of the universe, not how much faith you can muster up.
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