Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. John 14:1-12

Six times in this text, the Lord uses the word believe/believeth (Greek-pisteou) forcing us to take a look at our understanding of word believe!

What does it mean to believe in this constantly changing environment that is contrary to our persistent prayers? To believe is not a passive feeling. It is more than a mental acknowledgment that the bible is true or that the scriptures are divinely inspired; it spurs into action, because I assent to the authority or testimony of evidence adduced. It spurs to action based on my persuasion of the truth of God’s words. It is having a persuasion approaching to certainty and prompting to action such as in manifest in the psalmist’s confession in Psalm 116:10, that’s quoted again by Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:13 and such moved Joshua and Caleb in Numbers 14:6-9.

To quote Neal Vincent Frisby ‘Faith with action is believing.’ It is that I am sufficiently persuaded of the evidence God gives that I can trust Him and willingly commit my life to Him and live the way He wants me to live independent of what circumstances present.