Ways We as a Believer are Different from Those Who Don't Believe

Do you know someone who is unable to believe in God because they lack evidence he exists? They tell you that all you have to do is provide that evidence and they will then believe there is a God? It occurred to me that God will not allow most proof seekers to understand Him until they can change their approach. In analyzing the difference between how I can believe and another cannot, even though we are both rational people, I think it boils down to three areas:

1. Faith – I think that God asks for this more than many people are currently capable of giving. This is the belief that something exists without physical evidence. Much of what I have read and studied about God demonstrates to me that He does not reveal everything to mere mortal man. I do not think we would be capable of understanding what power it took to create a universe, regardless of what method physicists determine He used. Therefore, we are given small doses of His power, and asked to take all else on faith. However, He does not inhibit man from attaining this knowledge at the pace of technology. Someday, this knowledge may be made available to us, but I doubt in my lifetime.

The Bible is a great example of what God wants us to take on faith. It was written over a period of at least three thousand years, by fifty-five different authors, but has remained unchanged during the last two thousand years, according to the recently discovered Dead Sea Scrolls. The Bible serves several purposes. As historical fact, it presents an agreement God made with a man named Abraham to bless His people, and how they disobeyed and paid the price. The Old Testament was written to be understood by these people and as a historical perspective on following God versus disobedience. I have no doubt that were it written today, God would allow more explanation of the origin of man, of the flood, and other events of earth’s early history that modern man can more fully understand.

The New Testament was written to chronicle God’s new agreement with humanity, accomplished through coming to earth as a man, dying in the worst manner of the day, and coming back to life enough time after death to be believable as dead, and then ascending into heaven. This is the new covenant through which God allows us to overcome the sinful lives we are inclined to, and to experience a life beyond our earthly existence and see His glory in the future. I believe the Bible ends here for a reason. It has demonstrated to us the results of following or breaking an agreement with Him, then it demonstrates His new agreement with us in a way most clearly understood by people of the day and up to now. It allows us to chart our own course, but clearly lays out the consequence of a sinful life, and more so of not believing in his new covenant, through Jesus Christ.

This can only be taken on faith, as God did not allow for a preponderance of proof. I can only tell you that I have seen enough evidence of obedience and disobedience to Jesus Christ and the consequences of each to make a believer out of me.

2. Hope – this is what makes life worth living to me. I have great hope for the future for myself and my family. I believe God put me on earth to make a difference and I have the hope that one day I will fulfill my destiny on earth. In addition to my hope here on earth, I also have hope in eternal life: that is life after death. I believe there is a heaven and I know I will go there one day. Even if I was not sure I would hope there would be one.

I feel that I have invested many great years in this life, and I just cannot believe that it would end with nothing else. If a person cannot believe on faith that heaven exists, I wish they could at least hope there is one, and hope that some influence of God would allow them to understand and believe. I have hope that if a person wanted it bad enough, it would happen. This is an emotion that after as many years as most have spent set on their own course it would be difficult to attain.  I certainly understand how this has been difficult for most people personally.

3. Love –  There is no question that most people are a compassionate and caring, and that they like very much a lot of people. I have been blessed with a wonderful family that overwhelms me with these feelings and it makes it easy for me to accept God’s love for me, which is demonstrated in the symbol He used of having His son die on the cross. Since I didn’t live during that time, I cannot relate to the pain of that type of death, but all I have read indicates it was the most tortuous of the time, or just about any time. I think it was chosen for the purpose of showing the depths of His love, and I feel this depth in my personal relationship with him. I know this is a difficult concept, but if a person can think about how they feel when they really love someone, and can accept that God loves them, then they will be on the road to understanding why having His own son die on the cross was so effective in winning people to eternal life.

I know this is underwhelming in providing the facts and data that would be so effective in convincing others that believing God is the right thing to do. That’s just it. The Bible is full of references to how God will make it difficult for the intelligent to understand, so as to underscore the importance of faith. I hope persons can understand that what I have said here is in support and acceptance of the difficulty they have had in accepting Christ on faith. I have always loved and admired many, regardless of their beliefs. My opinion of what it would take for most to believe is a mountain they may not be capable of scaling. Please don’t let them give up trying though, for we never know when something may spark in them to give them peace for the future.