The Bible says repeatedly that faith is a gift from god. You can’t choose to believe in god, and you can’t earn God’s favor by being “devout” or “putting in work.” Either God grants you the gift of faith or he does not. Even Jesus himself says no one can come to me unless my father brings him to me.
Did you do work to believe that the sky is blue? Nor can you do work to believe in God.
That is not to be interpreted as “everyone who says they believe has been given faith by God.” Naturally it makes sense that some people would fake it for the sense of a group or would feel pressured to ‘believe’ out of fear of hell, but people that truly believe were de facto chosen by God to believe.
(post is archived)