I want to believe in God, but my mind is not letting me. I don't have any physical proof that God exists. Is religion something that humans made up to explain things? How do you know that God is real? What causes you to believe? The world is such a horrible place and so many bad things are happening. Where is God through all of this? If he loved us why isn't he showing himself to the world today? Part of me yearns for something to believe in. When I was younger I believed but it seems like the world has jaded me and I have lost my faith.
I want to believe
- Thread starter LucyT25
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Hi Lucy, it's ldonjohn again. I also sign my posts as Don & sometimes as John. Anyway, I responded to your post in another forum where I listed links to several articles that I think might help you. Hope you have found time to read them.
Lucy, I want to help you, but I'm not sure about the best way to do that. I could throw a lot of bible verse at you, but that has probably already been done. One suggestion I have is some articles and videos that can be found on John Ankergerg's website. I am going to try to get the links and post them for you. It might be in another post though.
I can say that many years ago I was at the same place you are today. I wanted to believe in Jesus, but I did not know how to do that. I tried praying the sinners prayer many times, over & over. Each time I would have a sense of believing and would have some peace about the matter, but it did not last and the fear & misery returned. I was living in a state of dreadful fearful & misery, and could not find my way to a settled peace with God. I thought that I would never know the meaning of believing in Jesus. I was certain that I was going to die and spend eternity in hell. That was a terrifying thought that drove me to continue searching for the truth about the existence of God & about what "believing" in Jesus really meant. Well, Lucy, if you read the article "What Does it Mean to Believe in Jesus?" there is no reason for me to continue telling my story again.
The point of that article is that the answer about believing God & how to believe in Jesus can be found in the Bible. God can show you whatever it is you need so that you can believe if you will earnestly look to Him to do that for you and if you will study His Word. That is where I found my answer and the lasting peace that came with it. The meaning of "earnestly" searching for your answer is that you are "desperate" to know the truth, and that you realize that you are "helpless" without God intervening in your life and showing you whatever it is you need to be able to be convinced by Him that He is real & that Jesus will save anyone who will come to Him believing that He will do that which He said He will do in John 6:37 where He said "All the Father gives to me will come to me; and he/she that comes to me I will not turn away." That means that God will draw someone to Jesus through His Word; His Word is truth. His word tell us that God is a spirit and that we must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
The fact that you are concerned about spiritual matters is an indication that God is drawing you to Christ. You must have had some form of bible teaching when you were growing up because it appears that God is using the teaching you received as young person to cause you to be concerned about your uncertainty that He is real. God is working on you, and that is a good thing, because if you willow Him to accomplish His purpose in your life He can & will give you the ability to see & understand His Way to saving you. Your answer is somewhere in the Bible. God wants you to search His Word for that answer as though nothing else in your life is more important than finding your way to Him. Another thing you should consider is your daughter & other family members; you want them to know Christ also.
Please don't despair; there is hope. You can know God! He wants you to know Him. The Book of Romans in chapter 1 says that His creation is evidence of His existence & that He put in the heart of every person a sense that He does exist.
Well, Lucy I am going to close this reply and see if I can find those links I mentioned earlier.
Don
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Lucy, below is a link to a video about salvation. It is about 25 minutes in length, but it is worth watching. The speaker is Dr. Erwin Lutzer. He explains salvation in a way that is simple to understand. His explanation is much like the way God showed me many years ago as I read the Book of John, but back then we didn't have the internet.
I hope the link is permitted here and that it will work for you.
https://www.jashow.org/articles/general/how-can-you-be-sure-that-you-will-spend-eternity-with-godprogram-3/
Please watch it. Watch ALL of it or you will miss some very important truths.
Don
I hope the link is permitted here and that it will work for you.
https://www.jashow.org/articles/general/how-can-you-be-sure-that-you-will-spend-eternity-with-godprogram-3/
Please watch it. Watch ALL of it or you will miss some very important truths.
Don
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aiki
Regular Member
How does this work, exactly? You are your mind.
Oh? Where do you think everything came from? Why is there something rather than nothing?
There are many reasons. Chief among them is my daily experience of God. He convicts me, comforts me, strengthens me, disciplines me, teaches me, and provides for me. He does these things for me day-in and day-out.
This is the nature of a world corrupted and fouled by sin. It is the unhappy consequence of God allowing us to be more than puppets so that we might genuinely love Him.
God is everywhere; He is omnipresent, the Bible tells us. And He is showing Himself to all who wish to see Him.
That is how God has made you. He made you to be in relationship with Him and until you are, that hunger for "something to believe in" will persist. There is within you a "God-shaped vacuum" that only God can properly fill.
Matthew 11:28-30
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
Selah.
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Another Lazarus
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Lucy,
Here's a good film reflecting the Love of God which we call Father in heaven.
the passengers of the train are the people of the world, some are workers, soldiers, drug addicts, teachers, doctors etc, they just dont care where the world is going to and where do they go. The train has violated the RED lamp signal and goes to disaster !!! People are living in sins.
Father sacrificed His beloved Son in order to save the whole world from DEATH.
May Jesus bless you all HalleluYAH
Here's a good film reflecting the Love of God which we call Father in heaven.
the passengers of the train are the people of the world, some are workers, soldiers, drug addicts, teachers, doctors etc, they just dont care where the world is going to and where do they go. The train has violated the RED lamp signal and goes to disaster !!! People are living in sins.
Father sacrificed His beloved Son in order to save the whole world from DEATH.
May Jesus bless you all HalleluYAH
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When I said my mind, I meant logically I don't have any scientific proof of God. That is the main reason I am doubting.
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aiki
Regular Member
So, where did everything come from, then? Something cannot come from nothing, right? Where, then, did the universe originate? There is no evidence at all for a multi-verse, no evidence that the universe just always existed; so if the universe began to exist a finite time ago, what brought it into existence?
Selah.
Selah.
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I really don't know where everything came from. I know that energy can only be transformed or transferred according to science. If things did begin with a big bang, where did the enormous amount of energy for the bang come from? Would that be God? But where is he now?
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- Mar 21, 2003
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Almighty God tells us about His creation of the heavens, the earth, man, and all living things in Genesis. Science will never be able to explain it. Almighty God is everywhere, and the Holy Spirit of God lives in the hearts of believers. The Holy Bible proves itself in hundreds of ways (i.e. prophecy being fulfilled, etc.). Jesus Christ is the most written about in the history of man, and our time is set because of Him (i.e. B.C., A.D.). Jesus Christ did walk this earth, and He was crucified on a cross. He died but He arose from the dead on the third day. He died on the cross for our sins so that we could be forgiven and saved. There were many witnesses.
I suggest that you read the beautiful book of John to learn more about Jesus Christ. He is also known as The Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
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Thanks for the reply, I have started reading the book of John. I am hoping if helps. Thanks!
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aiki
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Well, you know at least that everything couldn't have come from nothing, right? Out of nothing, nothing comes. It stands to reason, then, that something brought the universe into being. What does simple deductive reasoning indicate to us about what that "something" must be? If that something created time, space, matter and energy then it had to have existed independently of all these things before it created them. The First Cause of the universe had to have been timeless, spaceless, and immaterial. To infuse the universe with all of its energy, the First Cause must have been incredibly powerful, too. Finally, the First Cause must also have been personal. There are only two things in the universe that exist intangibly beyond space and time: abstract objects (like numbers) and minds. Numbers, though, can't cause anything. That leaves us with a Mind, which is intrinsically personal. A First Cause (or Mind) that is immaterial, enormously powerful, timeless and powerful sounds, however, exactly like the God revealed in the Bible.
This is true within the physical constraints of the universe. As Creator, God must necessarily have been independent of these constraints when He made the universe.
Yes, the energy was supplied by God. But God is not the energy itself any more than a clay pot a potter makes is the potter himself.
Where is God now? The Bible tells us that He is immanent in His Creation. God is present everywhere in the universe He has created. This is part of what it means to be God. Keep in mind, though, that God is not the universe. The universe is created and contingent; God is not. The universe is material and finite; God is not.
Selah.
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Tom, I just finished reading the book of John. I found it very moving, thank you for the suggestion. Growing up Catholic I went to church and catechism but never actually read the bible out side of mass.
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Good. Read the short book of Philippians next. I think that you will find it equally beautiful and moving.
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Hi Lucy, I think those are perfectly normal questions to ask. There are good answers for those questions, and they are all found in the bible. I can help you understand what the bible teaches about your questions:
God created everything, and the evidence that He did that is right in front of us. The bible tells us that He showed His glory and power in the creation itself. Just like a painting can't exist without a painter, a creation cannot exist without a Creator. The Universe was intelligently caused and deliberately designed, and that has implications for your life. Our Creator is all powerful and sovereign over His creation, which means that He preplanned your life too. He knows you personally.
Religion is what man has invented to try to understand who or what God is, but religion in the bible is not a set of rituals like laying on needles or fasting on certain days throughout the year. The only religion God our Creator and Father will accept is in Spirit and in truth. What this means is, there is a truth about God that we need to know and that He has a Spirit that we need to receive.
The bible tells us that God sent Jesus Christ to Earth to pay for our sins, and that because of our sins, we can't have a relationship with God because He is holy. Jesus Christ is the mediator who was predicted in the Old Testament, the promised Messiah who will deliver His people from their sins. A small proof of this you can find in Isaiah 53..ask yourself who this scripture is talking about and realize that it was written 800 years before the birth of Christ.
God gives us the faith to believe in Him, what we need to do is admit we are sinners in need of a Savior. When you realize that you have broken Gods laws and are facing judgment day along with every other human being, then you will realize your great need for Jesus Christ to deliver you out of judgment and into Gods Kingdom. Jesus Christ is the door, the way the truth and the life. When we believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, God sends His Holy Spirit to live inside of us and make us into new people. This is what it means to be born again, when Gods Spirit comes to live within us because of our faith in Jesus Christ.
God is here, He sent Jesus so that we can be saved and enter into relationship with Him, into His Kingdom. He adopts us as His children from that moment. The world is broken because of sin, but Jesus restores what went wrong, and what has gone wrong in our own lives.
Be asking and praying for God to reveal Himself to you. Read the book of John carefully, praying for God to reveal Jesus as your Messiah. He promises that if you seek Him diligently you *will* find Him.
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Lucy,
There is only one way to find God.
Its not by memorizing some belief system. Its not by joining a church or reading the bible. It's not by listening to preachers.
The simplest, easiest way to get there is to "fake it till you make it". Or as Paul said Be imitators of Christ. Yeshua said He was one with God because He had the very nature of the Creator. Finding God means attaining that nature.
So, all you have to do is fake it! Treat everyone else like royalty. Let them go before you. Find a friend with a need and give it to them. Open a door for someone. Be nice to people who attack you and hate you.
If you spend some time like this I guarantee you God will show Himself to you and you will know it without a shadow of doubt.
Bless up!
There is only one way to find God.
Its not by memorizing some belief system. Its not by joining a church or reading the bible. It's not by listening to preachers.
The simplest, easiest way to get there is to "fake it till you make it". Or as Paul said Be imitators of Christ. Yeshua said He was one with God because He had the very nature of the Creator. Finding God means attaining that nature.
So, all you have to do is fake it! Treat everyone else like royalty. Let them go before you. Find a friend with a need and give it to them. Open a door for someone. Be nice to people who attack you and hate you.
If you spend some time like this I guarantee you God will show Himself to you and you will know it without a shadow of doubt.
Bless up!
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When the Resurrection of Jesus Christ has been disproved, I will join you in your doubts; until then only He makes sense of the questions you ask.
Because He has risen from the dead He lives even today ready to help those who call out to Him.
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That is the best place to begin reading in the Bible, for one can see the big picture in all the Gospel books ---this is providing one allows there is a Creator-God, and all this world and universe did not just happen by accident, as many atheists claim. You mentioned science, so maybe you would like to see what sound scientists who are Christians say about God and our beginnings ---check out the site at www.icr.org and ask questions there.
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JacquelineDeane55
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Did you know that there is archaeological evidence that supports the validity of the Bible? There is, your faith doesn't need to be blind.
I will give you just one of many links:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct...archaeologys-top-ten-discoveries-of-2014.html
I know that nonbelievers claim that there is no evidence to support the Bible, but I've read plenty of books on the subject, and I have seen the evidence for myself. My own father has a section in the back of his Bible on evidences, it's an archaeological supplement. I have seen and read that too. So I won't believe the lies of Evolution anymore, evolution is all one big fat hairy lie.
http://biblicalstudies.info/top10/schoville.htm
http://www.manavai.com/articles/art1.htm
I will give you just one of many links:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct...archaeologys-top-ten-discoveries-of-2014.html
I know that nonbelievers claim that there is no evidence to support the Bible, but I've read plenty of books on the subject, and I have seen the evidence for myself. My own father has a section in the back of his Bible on evidences, it's an archaeological supplement. I have seen and read that too. So I won't believe the lies of Evolution anymore, evolution is all one big fat hairy lie.
http://biblicalstudies.info/top10/schoville.htm
http://www.manavai.com/articles/art1.htm
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The-Doctor
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I look at it this way, no I can't scientifically prove God exists, but then again I can't prove scientifically prove that the sun will definitely rise tomorrow, I just believe it will. I talk to fellow Christians, some very rational scientific people, how can all these perfectly ordinary people believe in something they can't prove? There has to be something in that. But that is the point of belief, I don't have to prove what I know in my heart to be true.
As for the evil in this world, God gave us each free will to choose our actions, unfortunately some choose to do bad things. If God stepped in every time something bad happened or was going to happen what would be the point of free will. God is like a parent, letting you free to choose your own path and when we are judged at the end of it your choices are your evidence.
If you had faith before, you will have it again, we talk to God in prayer but sometimes we have to listen to.
Why do I believe? The simplistic version for me, too many coincidences. I don't believe in coincidences.
Hoping this is making some sort of sense, you will find your path, the fact you are trying is a step on that path.
As for the evil in this world, God gave us each free will to choose our actions, unfortunately some choose to do bad things. If God stepped in every time something bad happened or was going to happen what would be the point of free will. God is like a parent, letting you free to choose your own path and when we are judged at the end of it your choices are your evidence.
If you had faith before, you will have it again, we talk to God in prayer but sometimes we have to listen to.
Why do I believe? The simplistic version for me, too many coincidences. I don't believe in coincidences.
Hoping this is making some sort of sense, you will find your path, the fact you are trying is a step on that path.
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