DAILY DEVO: The 7 Critical Questions

Do you want to receive more power for living? Here’s how …

George Barna is a Christian pollster and researcher. To provide good data, he has to do the impossible – statistically measure a Christian faith. (How in the world do you do that, right?!)

He came up with a list of seven question, figuring if you believe in all seven, you have a traditional, biblical faith.

Now that’s opinion. Is that really what it means to have faith?

We can say that “that’s debatable.” But what’s not debatable, is that those who believe all seven of these traditional doctrines exhibit statistically measurable “power for living.”

Church goers who believe 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or even 6 of these doctrines, live no differently than the rest of the world (statistically). We’re divorced just as much. We’re alcoholic just as much. We do drugs, cheat on taxes, view pornography, have affairs – you name it – just as much as the rest of the unbelieving world. And that’s 91% of Christians. In other words, picking and choosing what doctrines we believe leaves us no real power for living.

But the one in eleven Christians who humble their hearts and embrace all seven questions (the historic core of the Christian faith) are two, three, four, six, even eleven times less likely to participate in these life-altering and family-destroying behaviors. In other words, a submitted, committed faith brings the power of heaven into the ordinary life.

• I invite you to do an honest inventory of these seven key questions.
• If there’s a place (or two) where you’re weak, celebrate! You just discovered the key that will unlock your struggles and point you to more power.
• Choose the question with the most leverage (for example, that God is passionately active in our world or the Bible is totally His Word). Now start praying for God to soften your heart to this first timeless truths.  
• Remember answering six out of seven statistically produces zero power. You’re holding something back. Pray for the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, guidance, and encouragement as you seek to go “all in”!

1.       Do you believe in God in the Father, creator of heaven and earth? 
2.       Do you believe that he is omnipotent, omniscient, and actively involved in and caring about our world?
3.       Do you believe that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary?
4.       Do you believe that Jesus, in his life on earth, lived a sinless life?
5.       Do you believe that Jesus literally rose again from the dead?
6.       Do you believe that the Bible is the Word of God?
7.       Do you believe that Satan is real and active?
8.       Do you believe that we are saved by God’s grace apart from works prescribed by the law?

-- adapted from George Barna