Our lives are determined by what we most deeply believe. More influential than the economy, more powerful than our parents, more significant than our circumstances, it is what we believe that drives our lives: One man thinks he can, and one man thinks he cannot. And they are both right (Henry Ford). It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog (Mark Twain). Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy (Margaret Thatcher). The power of belief comes from deeply held, heart convictions. The difference between intellectual beliefs (mere mental speculations) and the deeply held beliefs of the heart is the difference between an early DOS computer and Leonardo da Vinci. “One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man” (Elbert Hubbard). We are those extraordinary people. While deep beliefs determine our lives, few of us examine them. And so we live lives of confusion and desperation, wondering what happened as we aimlessly drift along in the current of convictions inflicted upon us by an unthinking world. What is the controlling reality we live in? Is it the pejorative comments made by insensitive people? Or is it the hopeful reality Christ claims is true? “Men willingly believe what they wish” (Julius Caesar); let’s make that choice while conscious. Many believers grasp sound doctrine in their heads, but their lives are filled with fear, anxiety, and despair. It’s due to unexamined beliefs of the heart. In our heads we believe God loves us, yet we live lives of quiet desperation, hoping God won’t be too angry, and hoping others won’t see the real us. I write Beliefs of the Heart to help us Discover the unexplored convictions that drive us, and to Recover deep truths in the heart.