I was talking with a fellow engineer yesterday about the difficulties regarding faith, how some believe we are weak if we have faith in something. She made some valid points: we have faith in things everyday – we believe we are going to wake up the next day, we believe if we sit in a chair that it will hold us, if we turn on our sink we will have running water and so on. I agreed but then went on to say what about believing in good and evil and that there is an enemy that we refer to in the Christian community as Satan. This is a much more difficult topic to tackle because there has to be a point in your life where you have experienced the presence of good and evil in a real and powerful way. This is why it makes it difficult to discuss because if someone has never experienced some kind of turmoil, oppressing force or even the feeling of doing something good and seeing the contrast first hand they simply cannot understand what the rest of us are talking about. There are times when I have pulled close to God that I seem to be attacked from every angle –it’s like everything that could possibly go wrong actually does. As I alluded to in a prior post, there was a time when everything was falling apart on every front in my life. It wasn’t long before I got mad at God and the world. In this case, the enemy had won the victory over me – I gave up trying. I remember feeling like a piece of glass which someone picked up and threw on the floor and the pieces had gone everywhere. I remember trying to metaphorically pick up each piece and put myself back together again, which did not work. It was when I truly understood what Jesus had done for me – it was the first real encounter with His love that changed my perspective on life. My faith had been severely beaten up. When I tried to live apart from Him, it was the most helpless and depressing feeling – it was like all the hope had left my life.
Yesterday, I was introduced to a gentleman who works in a different department than myself; but who is also a Christian. The three of us began talking, only for me to discover we all go to the same church. (very cool!!) The first question he asked me was how I became a Christian – I briefly gave him my testimony at which point he got tears in his eyes and said "it never amazes me what God can do in the lives of those who truly believe". I asked him about his story – he began to tell me that he had been an angry person and he was on the verge of losing his wife before he met Jesus 30 years ago. He said with power and conviction in his voice that Jesus was the one who helped him change and through this change the marriage was saved. He stated that he never has regretted his decision to have faith in God and is still standing firm even to this day.
Isaiah 7:9 b
"If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”
I began to ponder, what would be a force of change in someone’s life who has never encountered or experienced God in real and tangible manner? I did not come up with any conclusive answers: except for potentially a life or death health issue. For example: change your diet or you will end up destroying yourself. That would be enough of a motivator to change. How many New Year’s resolutions get broken after a few short days or for even for the fanatic a few weeks to months? Is just living a good life with the morals really enough? Wouldn’t that go under the category of monotonous and leave you questioning why am I even doing this anyway (what is the purpose)? To me there just seems like there has to be more to life – because I have had that real life changing experience. I have seen in my life the power of forgiveness and the healing that it truly brings, I have prayed and have had them answered, I have seen in other people the hope and the true change in their lives when they gave their heart to Jesus. Again, I ask what can make a person truly want to change and have the ability to go against the desires of the flesh apart from God? After all, isn’t it human desire to do what’s best for ourselves and not others? What makes the message of the bible so bad? To live an upright moral life by doing for others before yourself – if you were to imagine a group of people like this it would make for a very kind and generous society.
Proverbs 16:6
"Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the LORD evil is avoided."
So are we really raving lunatics? Ok so admittedly, there are some… HAHAHA but that is not the majority!!!!!! Honestly, I wish more Christians would live out what they truly believed because this contrast would be more evident. More people would understand the need for Jesus in their lives and the hope / purpose He brings. However, at the end of the day we are all human and imperfect – none are without fault. It’s up to the individual to find the truth for themselves.
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