Proving Faith: Searching for Answers About God How do we prove our Faith when we are searching for answers in our lives? “Having faith means being able to sometimes sit with the uncomfortable questions.” Osho: made this statement “The whole of history of philosophy, religion, science, mathematics, has the same root, the same mind – the same itch. You may scratch yourself one way, somebody else may do it differently, but the itch has to be understood. The itch is the belief that existence is not a mystery” Starting with the beginning the Bible is set up on Faith and believing in what we have not seen, and what we feel in our hearts. In Genesis 5:22 and 5:24 Enoch walked in Faith with God for 300 years yet his Faith was on the unseen in believing that a God existed. Noah built an ark with Faith that the Lord was going to make rain, even doe it had not rained and Noah did not know what it was, but yet Noah told the people that a flood was going to destroy the earth. Our Faith has to work as Enoch and Noah, but also as everyone in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. What we have to do in concerning faith, we as Christian I naturally try to understand the statement that Osho: made in light of my Christian perspective. What if Christianity (or every other faith) is, more than anything, a search for comfort? A search for a sense of assuredness. Something to hold on to. Some people would even go as far to make Christianity even a crutch. There are many that take their “faith” at face value without exploring the deeper contexts, and ignoring the hard questions. However, the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that this isn’t entirely true for the Christian faith. While faith assures us of many things in our lives, it also opens up a whole new world of questions, uncertainty, and doubt. Having true faith requires a level of comfort with also being uncomfortable. It requires us knowing that we don’t know everything. From what we see typically seen in today’s world, this may seem counter-intuitive. There are many people who seem remarkably comfortable in their faith. In fact some of them are so confident, they feel compelled to tell you and everyone else how right they are. Some of these people are also the ones that end any actual topic of spiritual conversation because they become angry and asserting their argument with, “Well, God told me so, so I’, right.” How could we argue with that? A quote that Donald Miller made is a a great quote about humility and faith in “Searching for God Knows What”: Quote: If you ask me, the way to tell if a person knows God for real, I mean knows the real God, is that they will fear Him. They wouldn’t go around making absurd political assertions and drop God’s name like an ace card, and they wouldn’t’ be making absurd statements about how God wants you to be rich and how if you send in some money to the ministry God will bless you. It seems if your really knew the God who understand the physics of our existence, you would operate a little more cautiously, a little more compassionately, a little less like you are the center of the universe. Too many times people use religion to justify themselves in areas of doubt. Instead of admitting they don’t know all the answers they put up a facade, and refuse to be honest with themselves and others. To each of you I’ll be honest. When I read the Bible I don’t understand everything in it all the time. There are some confusing parts: The concept of a trinity, An omniscient, omnipotent, and ever-existent being, The coexistence of a perfectly loving God with the reality of so much evil in the world. There are areas that are simply hard for me to wrap my mind around. You know what? That’s okay. The Bible actually states that we “cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.” That’s not to say I think God is completely mysterious and there’s no way we can ever know anything about Him. I do believe there are some characteristics of God that we can know through his revelation in the Bible and his creation. I’ve become aware that honestly I don’t know some things and I’m okay with not knowing some things. I’m simply coming to terms with some of my human limitations. The Bible tells us how to fix the limitations of our Mind. Also this will help us to prove our Faith when we are searching for answers about God. Romans 12:2: tells us to renew our minds. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 1 Corinthians 2:16 tells us God will instruct us: For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Peter 1:13 that we should with our minds for grace through Jesus: Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us that our minds are brought to light through Christ: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. To finish which I have a lot more to say on this subject, but it is a large topic on Faith and believing in what we have not seen, but knowing that we have a Savior who is always with us. Like most things in life, it comes down to balance. Some things in life can be explained. Others can’t. The secret is learning to be at ease with that which can’t be known while simultaneously searching for an understanding of what can be. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 have all your thoughts be toward Jesus and be Obedience to Christ: Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; God Bless each and everyone that reads this in Holy Name Of Jesus Christ.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 00:23:21 +0000
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