I hear this so often, from individuals who experience many painful hardships.
Usually before they turn completely away from Him.
Because “How could a God who loves us, allow this to happen?” & “If God is real and is who He claims, why are there so many variants of Christianity and so many religions with different gods who claim the same thing?”
These are very very tough and valid questions my friends.
But this is where FAITH comes in.
Faith is KNOWING what can’t be “seen”.
Imagine this:
You are standing in the street barefoot.
It’s a cool day, not too hot, not cold.
You close your eyes & you feel the concrete under your feet.
You widen your stance a little; you bend your knees and give a little bounce.
You can tell this is sturdy. It’s holding you up. You won’t fall, you won’t sink, you won’t trip. Don’t look down, just feel it.
You open your eyes, & look up into the sky & see clouds, sunshine and some telephone wires maybe.
Maybe some birds fly by, and you still feel the ground under your feet.
You are absolutely CERTAIN that you are standing on this solid ground and you are safe.
You know- that you know… the ground is under your feet. Period.
Even when you look up. Even when you look behind you. And especially when you look straight ahead, and see the road before you.
You don’t have to see the road beneath your toes to know that it is there, to know that it’s safe, to know that it will take you where you want to go.
That’s the deep and confident way that FAITH is. It is a certainty and a knowing, without any fear or confusion.
It takes a lot of Faith to trust and obey - an invisible God. To believe the words He spoke and had His people write and pass on generation after generation.
Never the less we put our faith in invisible forces all the time.
Things like “love” and “hate” and “greed” and “hope”- and desires!
We gamble our money, our time, and our hearts often in “faith” and “hope” that the steps we take, the actions and behaviors we manage and modify- will get us to the next thing we are pursuing. (Money, Time, Relationships… whatever it is)
None of those forces “promise” anything. We don’t “blame” & reject those things when bad stuff happens or things don’t go our way.
We don’t give up on Love, Hope, Hate, Greed or Desires.
We mix them around, we may trade Hate for Love or Greed for Contentment etc. but they are all invisible forces we KNOW and trust at various times in our lives.
In the same way God, is trustworthy.
I have FELT Him in my life, His physical and spiritual presence more strongly than any other invisible force I can think of.
I have seen with my own eyes, many miracles of provision and healing and blessings of gifts and restoration etc. that has solidified my faith even more.
Faith and Science can coexist. There is so much data to support this from both a biblical and The Scientific method perspectives. One does not cancel the other.
God is real. There is scientific evidence to support this, as well as cultural evidence- bush tribes in Africa and Indigenous tribes in jungles, who all worship and honor and put their trust in God. Without ever having been exposed to the Bible.
So while I don’t have definitive answers to those really tough questions. I do know that having FAITH in God regardless of my situation or whatever hardship I face, God will be a sturdy, unwavering, solid force, holding me up, not letting me fall & showing me a path forward.
