What if we're merely attempting to hype ourselves into believing something that is simply not true? Admit it, you've considered this more than a few times. I know so because you've told me so. In fact, many, many times. But I really know it because my own heart has questioned the same thing countless times. And I don't want to be taken for a ride on this one. Do you know what I mean?

Then again, do we dare reveal these kinds of doubts? After all, wouldn't such admissions constitute unbelief? And if we're not believing are we really even saved? But if it's not true then this “salvation” is bogus anyway! Maybe this is why we usually push those questions back - way back - and then pretend they're not there.

I say it's time to let these fears be exposed for what they are. For if the truth of “Christ in you” is real then it is able to answer itself. Let me restate that. If the truth of Christ in you is real then it has been answering itself all along. Why are we not aware of this ongoing inner validation? Simple: the fears we suppress reinterpret what we hear.

But let's step back for just a moment and consider the fundamental principle behind self-talk: it is EMBEDDED into the nature of the empty life of humanity. No, neither the religious nor psychological world holds the copyright on this, they merely refined an already established tradition. That's right, every one of us developed our own complex system of an inner, ongoing psycho-babble whereby our every thought, word and action was guided. Basically, we learned how to lie to ourselves and to our world so that we could view ourselves and hope to be viewed in the best light possible. The voice of this inner-psychologist has become so automatic that we don't even notice it until we have to make an adjustment.

Then entered the miraculous. For even though we often refer to how God “prepared” our hearts to hear the good news, in reality NOTHING could have prepared us for what was to come. It's not because the gospel presented some higher form of understanding - as in difficult - but one that was completely foreign to every basic principle we ever learned in this world. What happened to us is that the very premise of our existence changed right underneath us.

Then re-entered the flesh's viewpoint - and with it, an incredible conflict. It's one thing to have a perception shift, it's another to have the dead attempt to re-interpret what can only be understood by the life that emerged on the other side of death. But that sure doesn't hinder the flesh from trying anyway! And the very best attempt of the fleshly religious mind merely converts Christ into a program based on that same old psycho-babble.

Should it come as a surprise when something within us doubts a Christianity that must be created and maintained by trying to believe it? Could it be that faith has absolutely nothing in common with the flesh's reinterpretation of it? Oh, maybe you'll disagree with my assessment - and that's okay by me - but if Christ is in you then the REAL you will still have a problem with such a fleshly excuse for the new miraculous life we have in Christ.