Believe

Our belief in God through Christ will result in a changed life, emanating from the presence of Jesus in our hearts. It's not a matter of placing what I call a "God-stamp" on your life and actions, saying or thinking, "yes, I believe in God," but not truly believing that Jesus is risen and confessing our faith in Him. Ephesians 2 states:
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

In John 11, Jesus gave some insight to Mary and Martha about the resurrected life and His coming resurrection. He said:
(25) ..."I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

Do. You. Believe. This.  That is a good question for each of us.  And, from there, we can consider the extent that we are showing the degree of our faith by wholeheartedly following Christ and allowing His Word to live in our hearts and govern our actions.  What we say we believe will be reflected in how we behave - there is a connection!   It's not enough to merely give lipservice to some vague religious concept or far-off deity; no, God wants us to draw close to Him, and Jesus has provided the way to do that.

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There are many these days who claim to believe in God, but by their confession and their actions, deny that they do. Romans chapter 4 speaks of the true God who...
(17)...gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did...

The passage references Abraham...
18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be."
19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.
20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.

It's a simple question, really: "Do you believe in God?"  Rather general, don't you think?  No specificity, no reference to the one true way to God, the Lord Jesus.  No talk of world religions or Christian denominations. No reference to what that actually means.

It's a view of God that society can get its arms around.  In 1944, the Gallup organization first started asking that very simple question. The summary on the Gallup website notes:

Gallup first asked this question in 1944, repeating it again in 1947 and twice each in the 1950s and 1960s. In those latter four surveys, a consistent 98% said they believed in God. When Gallup asked the question nearly five decades later, in 2011, 92% of Americans said they believed in God.

The latest survey, conducted in May of this year, shows that the percentage of those giving a positive answer is lower than ever; the summary says:

The vast majority of U.S. adults believe in God, but the 81% who do so is down six percentage points from 2017 and is the lowest in Gallup's trend. Between 1944 and 2011, more than 90% of Americans believed in God.

And, even among those who say they believe, they don't seem to think that He is listening when we pray.  The summary relates:

A follow-up question in the survey probed further into what Americans' belief in God entails. Specifically, the question asked whether God hears prayers and whether God intervenes when people pray.

About half of those who believe in God -- equal to 42% of all Americans -- say God hears prayers and can intervene on a person's behalf. Meanwhile, 28% of all Americans say God hears prayers but cannot intervene, while 11% think God does neither.

It notes: "Nearly three-quarters of the most religious Americans, defined as those who attend religious services every week, say they believe God hears prayers and can intervene."

I think you can safely say that there are untold millions of people this very moment who say that they have a belief in God, but they do not know the one true God.  Why, James 2 tells us that even the demons believe in Him - and they tremble!  You have those who believe in a higher power and maybe even call out to Him when they get into a tight spot or when things don't go their way.  But, that's not the relationship into which Christ has called us.

On one hand, I am thankful that you still have 8 out of 10 Americans who believe in God - but as George Barna has found repeatedly, very few, with percentages measured in the single digits, have a Christian worldview.  It is simply not enough to say you believe in God or even truly believe in a nebulous deity; Jesus told us (and as it's been contended, who are we to argue with Him) that there is one way to that one true God - He is the passageway into eternal life. 

The survey shows that only around half of these "believers" actually believe that God answers prayer and can "intervene."  What kind of faith is that?  I am thankful that the God of the universe, the holy and exalted One, sent His Son to earth to die for my sins, to take my place on a cross, so that I might come to know Him, to fellowship with Him, to have the Holy Spirit to live in my heart and walk with me daily.   God wants us to come to Him truly, in faith, and believe in the risen Savior.