After spending some time considering the subject, there seems to be three ways you can believe in God (Of course, I may be wrong but that is up to you to decide):
- First, your belief can be strictly faith based. You believe everything you have been told, heard or read about God. You don’t need evidence or proof. Your have faith and that is enough. These people are rare from what I have observed.
- Second, your belief starts in faith but you need more to support your belief. You want to know how it all works, how it comes together. You have questions and you need answers to be comfortable in your belief. You want to be able to respond to those non-believers that look to convince you otherwise. So you do what it takes to get the answers you need. The amount of knowledge this type of believer needs varies – some only need a little – some need a lifetime to get to a point where all of their doubts are removed, but ultimately they do reach a point of undeniable commitment – mind, body and spirit.
- Then there is the third group. Those that say outwardly that they believe, and for the most part they really would like to believe, but deep down in their heart they are not totally convinced. They see God up there somewhere and are hopeful that maybe if they are good they will someday be with God in Heaven. They call on God when they are in need and sometimes see Him as a genie in a bottle – hoping that if they make a wish and they are good, maybe God will grant them that wish. But if there was an alien invasion, or if there was indisputable scientific evidence for a natural explanation of the big bang theory, they could decide that they were mistaken and that the non-believers were right. These people are sort of in between, they have neither the desire to pursue the evidence that would make them solid in their belief, nor do they believe that they need to, until the day comes when something happens – the death of a loved one or some financial calamity – and realize that their faith was not as strong as they believed.
It is to the majority of us believers that are looking to shore up our conviction that this blog is dedicated. Those souls that can use all the help they can get to build that ‘foundation of stone that will not wash away when the rain comes down, the streams rise and winds blow.’ Because in the end it really comes down to the fact that we are all in this together, to love and serve each other as God planned.
Editor’s Note – You may be saying to yourself, ‘but what about the fourth group – the true non-believers – the atheists?’ The truth is that most atheists could not tell you with any absolute certainty that there is no god. They simply don’t see any evidence of a god. So, they choose not to believe. It’s like there was some glowing piece of wood or magical video tape or written document that they need to see, and poof! their lifetime of non-belief would take minutes to change with some ‘hard’ evidence. Well, the truth is that there is extensive evidence of God’s existence. Necessarily, it is up to the individual as to how much evidence they need in order to truly believe (Group 2). And most atheists would believe if they just dedicated themselves to finding the evidence that they need to make them make convert – they are just uncommitted, lazy or one of those whose eyes have been veiled by the god of this world. Lastly, although it would be nice to believe that we could convert an atheist to a believer with this blog, that is not our goal and therefore not our focus. However, God may have other plans.