Tell me what you believe, and I’ll decide whether your really believe that based on how you behave. Beliefs produce behaviors. For a time you may behave in a way that is inconsistent with your beliefs, but over time, your behaviors will always realign with your beliefs.

This is a spiritual principal, a universal law. It’s not just about matters of faith. It’s about life. Believe you are unworthy of success and you will repel it. When it comes near, you will sabotage it. Believe you are unworthy of love, and when you are smitten by a beautiful woman or a handsome prince, you’ll actually start behaving in a way that drives that person away from your life. Believe you can’t make the sale, and you won’t. Believe you can, and more frequently you will. The old adage says “Whether you believe you can, or you can’t, you’re right.” Beliefs produce behaviors.

If we want to change what our life produces, we must change our behaviors. If we want to change our behavior, we have to change what we believe. It’s really that simple. If you want more love in your life, doesn’t it make sense to change your behavior so that you are giving more love, and that in so doing you’ll attract more of that to yourself.  Changing your behavior to attract more love starts with believing that you are lovable, that you deserve love, that you are worthy to be loved. I believe it starts by realizing you are loved by God. When you look in the mirror and see someone that God loves, and you say to that person in the mirror “You are worthy of love” you begin setting up the mental framework that allows you to be loved, to accept and receive love when it comes from another person.

Conversely, if you want more ill will in your life, just start being mean-tempered with everyone. I’ll bet there’s a 100% chance you’ll start drawing nasty agitation into your life.

Here’s the principle: What you believe determines how you behave. How you behave determines what you produce. Produce is the fruit, belief is the root. Behavior is the action that connects the two.

Now, here’s the spiritual point to this observation. For a long time our churches have produced “Statements of Belief” in which we’ve argued fine theological nuances. I’m all for knowing what you believe, and being sure your beliefs rest on good logic, scholarship, and sound intellectual foundations. But what if instead of producing a Statement of Belief we produced a “Statement of Behaviors”?

Hmm. An interesting idea, don’t you think?

The first behavior could be something like this: I will be gracious and forgiving toward others because Jesus was and is gracious and forgiving toward me. It’s easy to discern the belief behind that behavior. The belief is that God forgives us and is gracious to us when we don’t deserve it. But the fact—imbedded in that belief—doesn’t have the same umph that the behavior does. The behavior is explicit. You are either doing it, or you aren’t. And if you aren’t it tells us something about what you believe.

Spiritually, I’d encourage you to take a look at your church’s statement of belief. Consider whether you could rewrite it as a statement of behaviors, then teach them and hold people accountable for those behaviors. It might just revolutionize and revitalize your relationship with God and give credence to what you say you believe.

Personally, take a look at yourself. What do you believe? How do you behave? How is what you are experiencing in life tied to that belief and the behaviors it produces? If you want to change what you produce, first you’ve got to change what you believe and how you behave.