Believe vs believe in

I had bible study tonight with a few guys and as we are between studies, we simply caught up from the holidays and then we spoke about the sermon from Sunday. The sermon on Sunday talked about the difference between believing God and believing in God. How it is easy to believe in God and still do your own thing, but if you believe God and believe the things that He has said about Himself and about you, then it changes your decision patterns in your daily life. I think it was a good discussion as we walked through some of the scripture references that tied into this line of thinking. Hopefully, we will find a good study that we will all get into over the next couple of weeks.