Does Having Faith Mean We Have to Turn Off Our Brains?
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“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).
What is faith? Well according to Hebrews 11, faith is being confident and assured of things we cannot see. When you think of faith, we often attach words to describe it, like “blind faith” because we are believing for something before we see it. You may even hear terms like “take a leap of faith,” again encouraging you to take steps before you see a result.
When we think of faith in these terms, it may be easy to conclude that faith has everything to do with our hearts or emotions and nothing to do with our brains. I want to challenge that today. Faith that is based solely on your heart or your emotions is not really faith at all. For faith to be real, there must be some evidence that forms the foundation for that faith, and this is where your brain comes into play.
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Faith in Your Salvation
The first area of faith I want you to consider is why you can have faith that Jesus is the Messiah and that your salvation is secure. Have you ever wondered if this belief is based on a brainless hope, or is it based on real evidence that creates the ability to believe? You will be happy to know there is real, enduring evidence that forms the basis of your salvation, and thus why you can have faith.
The foundation of your Christianity and your faith is connected to the one event that proved Jesus was who he said he was. That event was the resurrection. The resurrection was what the early apostles testified to, and it was the motivator that drove their faith and their witness. They saw Jesus crucified, they saw him buried, and they saw him resurrected. This became the foundation of their faith and all Christianity. They saw him, they believed, they wrote about it, and they told others as well. Not only did they write about it, so did many others and there are plenty of books now that will speak plainly about the evidence and proof of the resurrection.
The fact of the resurrection is what we base our hope and faith in Christ upon.
“And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith…And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17).
Connecting How We Love with How We Believe
“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’” (Matthew 22:37).
Based on this verse, there is one thing that is clear. Your mind is part of your relationship with God. Your relationship with the Lord is not something that just exists in your heart, it is supposed to engage every aspect of who you are. So just as you love God with your heart, soul, and mind, you also believe God with your heart, soul, and mind. Your mind was never supposed to be left out of the process.
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Scriptures That Tie Faith to Your Mind
Let me share with you some verses that make this relationship more evident.
“’Come now, and let us reason together,’ Says the Lord, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18, NKJV).
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight”
“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ” (Romans 10:17).
There are three words in these verses you should pay attention to. Those words are reason, understanding, and hearing. What all these words have in common is you must use your brain for them to work.
How do you reason? With your brain.
How do you gain understanding? With your brain.
How do you hear and process? With your brain.
It is in your mind where you process the information necessary to take steps of faith. It is quite simple – every time you make a decision, you are basing that decision on information you have received or processed. The decision to receive Jesus as your savior was based on information you received and processed which led you to make a choice. Where did that processing happen? In your brain. By the way, this is why Satan works so hard to keep people’s mind out of the process.
“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
If your mind was not critical to your faith, then Satan would not work to blind it from understanding the truth about who Jesus is.
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The Heart-Mind Connection to Faith
Let me take it a step further, because for faith to work it must connect your heart and your mind together. You cannot have faith without this connection. Let me show you one more verse to illustrate the point.
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).
The desire to come to him is birthed in your heart, but the belief that he exists is something that is confirmed in your mind. The desire to earnestly seek him comes from your heart, but the knowledge that he rewards those who seek him comes from your mind. In this fashion, your heart and your mind work together. Faith is not some emotional experience that is not based in reality; it is a belief that is based on truth, knowledge, and understanding.
How Do You Build Faith?
One last thing about faith to consider is how do you build it? There are two elements required to build faith, and this further shows how your heart and your mind work together. Again, without these two there can be no real faith or real building of faith.
Let me give you one more example from Scripture of how this works. In John 9 there is the story of the man who was born blind. Long story short, this gentleman had an encounter with Jesus and during this encounter he was healed and given sight for the first time in his life. This experience was the first step to building faith in Jesus, but it was not enough by itself because he had no knowledge of who Jesus really was. This man was eventually brought before the Pharisees and questioned about Jesus. Here was his response.
“He replied, ‘Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!’” (John 19:25).
This man had an encounter with Jesus, but without any knowledge of who Jesus was, there could be no faith. However, Jesus solved this problem because eventually this man was kicked out of the synagogue and Jesus went looking for him. Pay close attention to this exchange between them.
“Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.’ Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him” (John 9:35-38).
The man asked Jesus to tell him who the Son of Man was so he could believe. He was simply asking “help me understand who he is,” which engages the mind. When he understood this and he coupled it with the experience he had with Jesus earlier, faith was born. The heart and the mind worked together.
Final Thought
Here is what I want you to walk away with today – your mind is an essential part of building and growing your faith. If you don’t engage your mind in the process, then you won’t have faith. God wants you to be convinced that he is and that he rewards those who seek after him. This will only happen when you have faith that encompasses both your heart and your mind.
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