For example, a person may believe that exercise is good. Many people hold this belief, but many with the belief do not exercise consistently. We may find ourselves continuing to sit on the couch, scrolling through more online content, day after day, even though we think that we ‘believe’ that exercise is good.
Or, we may believe that pornography is bad, but still view it, simply because it is part of a movie we otherwise like. At some point, we have to accept the responsibility to remove from our lives the things that do not coincide with our actual beliefs or the things holding us back from being who we are called to be.
The things that we truly believe are those that dictate our actions. When we find ourselves sitting on the couch day after day, it is a sign that we do not believe deeply enough in the value of exercise as there is another belief more powerful at work inside, a belief that we may find what we are looking for by continuing to browse online content, or consume more entertainment, or any number of other beliefs.
When we say that we ‘believe’, but we don’t yet act on that belief, we may have a seed of belief, or a desire to believe, but those have to be grown and developed into real, mature belief. To do this, we have to begin acting on those small seeds or desires that are inside of us. This takes intentional thought and effort.