Monday, December 13, 2010

Faith


I need to remember what faith is. I really struggle with feeling like I have to fully understand everything and needing concrete evidence for things, especially when it comes to God. I read Jesus’ encounters with the Pharisees and think how ignorant they were to have Jesus standing right in front of them, living among them, and still not believing in Him. And really, when I think about it, I’m doing pretty much the same thing. I say “God, I know you’re here, I can see what you have done in my life and feel your presence inside of me, and you even make sense to my skeptical mind, but I still need just a bit more proof from you, and then I’ll truly believe in you.” And what I’ve just now realized is that this is me leaving out one of the most crucial components of believing in God, which is faith. I may not have Jesus standing in front of me telling me He’s my savior, but I have the Bible telling me that, and I have Him living inside of my heart and showing me that in my life daily. And I still doubt Him. So until I can say “I believe because I have faith,” I’m no better than those Pharisees.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Whispers


“How faint the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?” 
(Job 26:14)

How exciting is that! I read that, and then I look around me, and all I can think is, whoa. We think that we see Him in the sunset, and that we feel Him when we experience love, and that we commune with Him when we pray, and here we learn that all of that is but a shadow of His true self. How can that be? How could anything be more beautiful or powerful or awe-inspiring than this Creation? I guess it only makes sense that its Creator is exactly that—more beautiful, more powerful, more perfect in every way. But here’s the crazy thing, the fact that because we hear only a faint whisper of Him, we can’t even understand the thunder of His power! It’s no wonder men have spent centuries writing about it, singing about it, fighting about it, agonizing over it. God obviously made us with an innate desire to know and understand things, and we have come a long way in the realms of science, and mathematics, and medicine, and even the study of our own minds and understanding. And yet try as we may, we just can’t seem to wrap our heads around God. Unfortunately for many, this inability will be their downfall. It was nearly mine. But luckily for us, God gave us not only our heads, but our hearts as well. And boy does He know how to speak to our hearts. We could argue until our faces turned blue about the attributes of God and whether His existence makes logical sense and whether all of the facts in the Bible line up, but it’s pretty hard to argue with people whose souls have searched the world for rest and found it nowhere but in God’s loving arms. I know one thing I can’t deny is the whispers I hear from God daily and the power He has exhibited in my own life. I have seen firsthand how He can transform a life, and I don’t understand it, but I can’t help but believe it, because the evidence is inside of me. How precious are those whispers I hear of God. I don’t know that I could handle anything louder.