Is believing that Jesus is your savior a heart thing or a mind thing? Is it true that we have to pass that idea through our mind before we believe this in our heart? What if our mind blocks the concept that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and was resurrected? If our mind does not accept this how can we believe it in our heart? Is it possible that our hearts can overrule our mind in this matter. Can a person chose to accept this in his/her heart even though the mind is not able to comprehend it?
This is an area where it seems clear that the mind and the heart are inseparable. So much of our faith is, on the one hand, a heart thing, yet it seems that the mind has a certain degree of control over what the heart will believe. Yet Romans 10:9 says that “if you believe in your heart that God raised him(Jesus) from the dead, you will be saved.” It says nothing of your mind.
I believe that we must make a choice to believe in our heart even though our mind might think something else. Isn’t this the essence of faith? Believing what we can not see or comprehend.
What are your thoughts? Have you struggled with something big and been able to believe in your heart something different than you were thinking in your head?
SC says
January 15, 2014 at 10:23 PM“Test everything, and keep what is good”.
Blind belief is foolish. Faith comes from the heart, but also from the mind. Indeed, we are to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts, and lean not on our own understanding, but so also is every inclination of man’s heart evil, even from childhood. Somewhere, among all the religions of the world, there is truth. It will take both heart and mind to find it.
Russ says
January 16, 2015 at 3:16 PMMy understanding is that the heart and mind are the “functionally distinct domains” of intellectual processing (mind) and the seat of beliefs and understanding (heart) which is at the core of our self identity. According to the bible it is the heart that believes (Lk 24:25, Rom 10:9) and it is the heart that understands (Mt 13:15, Ac 28:27) .
To make a choice is to be in doubt regarding a definite conclusion so that wen one reasons and is not fully persuaded a choice is made. Faith is to be fully persuaded and trusting in thought, word and deed what one believes. Therefore to believe is more a matter of the heart than of the mind.
Reasoning is what Eve did in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:6) in her dialogue with the serpent instead of trusting what God had already said. Since that time every man has leaned unto his own understanding and according to their own beliefs instead of in the truth from God. Adam and Eve doubted their identity in their relationship with God and worshiped at the altar of their own beliefs instead of trusting God. They and their descendants became intellectually self sufficient and autonomous from God. This is also the root of the reason why there are so many differing religions and religious sects.
Steve Slater says
October 7, 2017 at 4:44 AMPaul wrote, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?… So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:14-17) I think Paul recognizes intellectual dishonesty. I think that true faith is not outward conformity, nor a matter of preference about what I want to believe, but what I genuinely consider to be true deep down inside. That kind of faith requires a foundation of factual information to respond to. However, my response to truth can be a matter of the heart. Although I believe our faith must be fully integrated with our mind and what we consider objective truth, I can agree with the article that it is more a matter of the heart. I would go further and say that there are truths we comprehend with our hearts that we don’t truly rationally comprehend – but we “know” they are true. Things like love, or the existence of good and evil. Western man tends to deny the existence of the spirit and believe the essence of reality can be found in the material world. But it is with the spirit, not the mind, that we comprehend many truths.
Anonymous says
March 28, 2019 at 12:14 PMI have been struggling with believing the word of God with my heart for a while! I’ve read that the Holy Spirit is what convinces/persuades you into believing with your heart. What does it feel like to believe with your heart, and how long does it take for the Holy Spirit to convince your heart of believing this?