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What Do You Really Believe?

Orginally published on Sunday, July 29, 2007 at 1:37 PM
by Todd Rhoades

Daniel Decker writes: "I was listening to a recording the other day by John Ortberg. He was speaking on a message entitled, “What Do We Really Believe?” A very thought provoking and challenging topic." John talks about three different types of convictions most all of us have: Public Convictions, Private Convictions, and Core Convictions...

We tend to operate under 3 CONVICTIONS:

PUBLIC CONVICTIONS | What I say I believe.
The things we want others to think we believe, even though we really don’t always believe them. PR spins. Think of a politician… enough said.

PRIVATE CONVICTIONS | What I think I believe.
Things we sincerely think we believe but that often change with varied circumstances.
Sort of like Peter telling Jesus he would not deny him. No doubt he was sincere when he said it but as soon as the pressure was on Peter’s private convictions changed like the wind.

CORE CONVICTIONS | What I reveal in my actions.
Things revealed by our daily actions. Behavior congruent with our true beliefs. What you really believe.

Since public convictions can be lip service and that private convictions by themselves can be swayed by emotions, the best indicator of who we are and what we believe is through what is revealed by our core convictions, our daily actions that culminate to represent our mental map. Often the core conviction is most easily witnessed by an observer, someone on the outside who catches a glimpse of who you really are.

This conviction part of the message really made me realize why so many outside of the church see Christian’s as hypocrytical. Most people are somewhat familiar with Jesus. They know that what he said matched what he thought and what he did. Most even respect that we believe his core conviction was revealed through his death on the cross. What they don’t seem to get is why someone like me (or maybe you) can say we are followers of Christ, even think/believe we are followers of Christ but lack the true conviction to make it a core conviction of our lives that then becomes revealed through our actions. We say we love Christ but are we showing that conviction by loving others? We think we have been saved by the Grace of God but are we extending that same grace to others when they wrong us or do something we don’t like? We tell others we trust in Jesus but then we worry about petty, small things.

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Any thoughts?


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