I can’t take credit for this saying. I heard it from Pastor Mike, and it really got me thinking, especially at a time when I needed to hear it.

“How you be living affects how you’re believing.”
It sounds kind of funny when you break it down that way, but hear me out.
The first meaning is probably the most obvious, especially considering it came from Pastor Mike.

How you’re living can say a whole lot about what you truly believe.

For me, the way this hit home was with worrying. I constantly catch myself worrying, trying to over-plan everything, stressing about the “what ifs,” and thinking about every possible outcome or problem that could come up.

If I’m living worried, stressed, and trying to control things that I probably have no control over in the first place, what does that say about what I’m believing?

That’s where I have to catch myself.

If I truly believe God is in control, and if I truly trust what He has planned for me, then I need to live like I believe it.

That doesn’t mean I stop working hard. It doesn’t mean I stop planning or preparing. And it certainly doesn’t mean problems aren’t going to come my way.

It means I put my best foot forward, do everything I can with what’s in front of me, and then trust God with the things I can’t control.

Because if I’m constantly saying I trust God’s plan while spending all my time worrying about what might happen next, am I really living like I believe what I’m saying?

I mentioned earlier that Pastor Mike said this at a time when I really needed to hear it. Here’s why.

I was preparing to run a half marathon. I had worked extremely hard and was hitting all my training goals. I felt ready.

Then, about 10 days before the race, for whatever reason, I developed some pretty serious foot pain. It got to the point where it was difficult to even walk without pain.
Immediately, my mind went to the worst-case scenario.

I’m done. I’m not going to be able to race. Even if I do race, how am I possibly going to make it through 13.1 miles?

That’s what I started believing. And guess what? That’s how I started be-living.

I was hobbling around and, for lack of a better term, pouting.

I have to give my wife some credit for snapping me out of it. She showed me pretty much zero sympathy and basically told me we were going.

Instead of living like I couldn’t do it, I started living like I could.

I started taking care of my foot. I focused on what I could control. I stopped spending all of my energy thinking about why I wouldn’t be able to run and started figuring out how I could give myself the best chance to get through the race.

My foot did not feel better. But I stopped living like I had already lost.

I’m telling you this because I think our minds are incredibly powerful.

If you convince yourself you can’t do something, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to live like you can’t.

But if you truly believe you can do something, it’s amazing what you can accomplish.

I ended up finishing third overall in that race.

I’m not telling you that to brag. I’m telling you because I don’t believe I finished third that day simply because of athletic ability or endurance.

I finished because I stopped living like I had already lost and started living like I believed I could do it.

So, as I seem to be doing at the end of a lot of my articles lately, I’ll leave you with a challenge.

Think back over the past week, month, or even year. How have you been living?

And more importantly, what does the way you’re living say about what you truly believe?

Take control because how we be living has a whole lot of correlation to how we’re believing.

“If you can?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” ~ Mark 9:23