What is belief and faith?

When I was growing up one of the first scriptures that I learned was John 3:16. It says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." That is pretty straightforward stuff - or is it?

The earliest gospel presentation I can remember - from my days as a child - was called the "ABC's of salvation." In order to become a Christian, I needed to do three things:

Ask Jesus to come into my heart/life.
Believe that Jesus was the Son of God, that He died on the cross to pay for my sins and that He rose from the dead three days later.
Confess that I was a sinner in need of His forgiveness and saving love.

Now all of that seems pretty straightforward too - or is it?

Now that I have been a Christian for the better part of 20 years and a pastor for half that time I am still convinced that it is that straightforward. But, that is not the end of the story.

If that is the end of the story, all of Christianity can be reduced to a platitude and a simple formula that one can embrace mentally with no cost and no thought to what comes next. AND WHAT COMES NEXT IS WHAT MATTERS! Following Jesus is simple, but its not easy.

What comes next is the rest of our life living with, in and for the purpose of following Jesus. That is what faith is, a trusting walk, not a hypothetical belief. Thomas Merton says, "Perhaps this is the essence of faith: to be convinced of the reliability of God."

If that is true, then the rest of the story is a journey of ups and downs, of steps forward and - sometimes - steps back, but mostly of growing to become more and more like Jesus. AND IT MUST MEAN REALIZING THAT JESUS IS RELIABLE! He is reliable enough to save us for eternity and, if that is true, He is reliable enough to show us how to be good husbands/wives, fathers/mothers, friends, workers/bosses, etc.

Isn't that what it means to believe too? What do you think? What does it mean to have the right kind of faith or the right kind of belief in God? What does that look like in your life? How do you know its present and how do you know its growing?