Does Belief Make a Difference?

If you say that you care about the environment, but you don’t bother to recycle or you regularly throw rubbish out of your car window, then you obviously don’t really care about the environment. If you say that you care about people who are suffering but you don’t do anything to relieve that suffering, then you obviously don’t really care. If you say you care about your kids but you don’t spend time listening to them, enjoying them and training them for life then you don’t really care that much. If you say that your marriage is important but you don’t do anything to keep the romance alive and the commitment strong, then you don’t actually care that much about it.

According to the Australian Community Survey (1998), 74% of Australians believe in God. More recently in the U.S., a survey of over one thousand doctors found that 76% believe in God. Another recent survey of 1600 young people born between 1976 and 1990, conducted by Monash University and the Australian Catholic University, claims that 48 per cent believe in God, while 20 per cent do not, and 32 per cent are unsure about the existence of God. According to the National Census in 2001, about 80% of people in the Narembeen Shire say that they belong to a specific religious group.

But saying or thinking that you believe in God is one thing. What difference does it make to what you do?

I have found that when I have put my faith in God into action, it has made an incredible difference in my life. The Bible says that faith without action is dead – it’s good for nothing- but faith that moves us to action can change the world.