How do I deal with the belief that maybe... Just maybe... God exists and I'm...

[Neo-Scholastic]

Just to be absolutely clear, I did specify intellectual belief because this is a case of semantic ambiguity. Kind of like faith, in theology, is generally understood to imply some level of trust.

Jesus didn't make that distinction so this is just pointless pettifoggery.

You don't know that! Perhaps Jesus did make His intentions very precise. The real point is WE don't know if He made that distinction, right? I say, when pondering the meaning of the English word "belief" translated from an apparent Greek transciption of an Aramaic speaker...it makes sense to consider all the possible connotations of the word as potentially valid. From there, one considers those connotations to themes of the overall narrative. IMHO the correct undertanding of "Whosever believeth in Me..." is that to believe in Him means to trust what He says.

Besides, you also know that I personally do not have a very rigid approach to biblical hermenutics. I expect and delight in those ambiguities. And for that reason I truly have no interest in proof-texting (And apparently neither do you since you reference the words of Jesus...but not which ones.)

To the OP: you would also have to consider that there are competing understandings of the afterlife within Christianity. Annihilation and Universalism are both plausible interpretations of the text. Personally, I find the arguments interesting but at the same time I don't think it really matters. IMHO its not about the validity of the belief as much as the confidence you have in that belief. I condisider having intellectual beliefs pretty weak sauce. Having the right opinions doesn't make you a good person, because if it did every car with a fish or "coexist" bumper sticker would drive like saints...which they don't. So its how you act on those beliefs that matter.