What You Believe Shapes Your Life
By Rick Warren
“When the foundations of life are undermined, what can a righteous person do?” Psalm 11:3 (GW)
What we believe about the world around us shapes everything about our lives. Why? Because what you believe determines your behavior. Your behavior then determines what you become, and that has a direct effect on the direction of your life.
The same is true of a country or the world. They are largely shaped by the values we believe.
The problem is, we’ve bought into three very destructive philosophies that have replaced truth in our lives: Individualism is the lie that we’re the only standard for our lives. Secularism can be summarized in three words: God is unnecessary. And relativism is when we’re told that there are no absolutes—what’s true for you may not be true for me.
The Bible says, “When the foundations of life are undermined, what can a righteous person do?” (Psalm 11:3 GW).
What can we do about it?
We have to start with God. He embodies truth. What is right and wrong gets its meaning in the character of God himself. Dishonesty is wrong because God is honest. Unfaithfulness is wrong because God is faithful. You can know truth by looking at how God interacts with us.
The Bible says, “[God] shows how to distinguish right from wrong, how to find the right decision every time” (Proverbs 2:9 TLB). We can know the character of God through his Word. The Bible tells us what’s true, whether or not we like what it says.
Once we encounter truth—God’s truth—we’ll recognize two key features of it every time we see it.
It’s universal. It applies to everyone. If it doesn’t apply to everyone, it’s not truth. It’s an opinion.
It’s unchanging. It won’t be moved by fads or fashions. Adultery was wrong 2,000 years ago, it’s wrong today, and it will be wrong 4,000 years from today.
Our world today gives us three options for how to discover truth: We can choose to base our morality on what we think, on what other people think, or on what God thinks. The choice is ours.
When you build your life on absolute, universal, unchanging truth, you won’t stumble so much, because you’ll always have a firm foundation and an unshakable God determining your path.
“Those who listen to instruction will prosper; those who trust the LORD will be joyful” (Proverbs 16:20 NLT).
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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