"Don't expect faith to clear things up for you. It's not about certainty, but about trust" (Flannery O’Connor). “Believe,” the verb of faith, means much more than giving mental assent. The verb means to trust in, put one's confidence in, rely upon, and cling to -- to actively place one’s trust in something. We tend to let the noun “Faith”, which means firm persuasion, define its verb “Believe” giving mental assent without the corresponding action element which makes “Believe” a verb. This is, of course, the meanings in the Greek. Unfortunately, there is a significant difference between the Greek and English meaning of the word "Believe" which further compounds and clouds our understanding. “Believe”, in English, simply means to have a conviction about something, to think something is true divorced from active trust, which does not necessarily change our lives. “Trust” is assured reliance on something, and TRUST CHANGES OUR LIVES BECAUSE WE ACT UPON IT. Remember the old analogy where a person says they can carry another person on their back across a tightrope over Niagara Falls. Believe says "yes, I believe you can do it", while trust says "I'll get on your back." When you see the word “Believe" in the scriptures replace it with "Trust", than stop and climb up on God's back -- He won't let you fall.
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