To Experience God or to know Him through reason? | Saturday, September 30, 2006
I was having an interesting talk with one of my cg members and I could see that he really wanted to place his faith in our Lord Jesus Christ but what was stopping him is simply that he does not know enough about Him even though he was born in a Christian family and that caused me to think about this question a bit more thoroughly.
I realized for myself that I too am born in a Christian family and that I experienced the same problems as he did but the sole reason why I am able to stay in my faith is that I have experienced God since young in church, family and even in my own personal life. Whenever I am in distress or being scolded/disciplined by my parents, I would always go to my room and pray to God, seeking comfort and I always have this sense that He was always nearby, being my Comforter and I was comforter that throughout all these years, I have never left Him though there are moments where I have back slided. He is always there for me and that is what counted most for me.
However, I realized one thing very early on in my life that when people asked me about my faith, I couldn't convince them at all and my faith was nearly shaken when they asked me questions that I couldn't even answer but I have to act as if I know all the answers at my fingertips but alas, I couldn't deceive them but only myself. From that time on, at age 17, I made a covenant with God that I will read the Bible faithfully, all the way from Genesis to Revelation and that I wanted to know Him through the Book and experiences and I faithfully pored my energy and time into it and that is how I started my daily devotion. God is faithful and just and He is gracious enough that the more I read, the more sensitive I became towards His presence. I began to make a defense of my faith to my friends and I began to tell them of the great things God has done in my life and that my faith is not in vain.
I realized one thing that we cannot doubt God's goodness for if we doubt, there's no place for us to turn at all. I also realized that if we just take one tenet of knowledge without experiencing God in His way, we will become dry and there won't be new life springing forth out of us, in other words a dry academic. On the other hand, if we keep on experiencing God without making an effort to study about Him, to know Him of who He truly is, then our faith, I believe is lop-sided and this will not do anyone good. Thus, I believe that we ought to be balanced in either way and yet this is the difficult line to draw.
I also believe that God's word is true and that He has already proven His existence and His love He has towards us and it is only up to us to take the step of faith to choose to believe or not to believe His words at all. We will never know Him for His ways are higher than our ways and that just like one smart theologian says it beautifully that if we know and understand God, then God ceases to be God at all.
We ought to study and believe Him of the things He has done but as I said earlier on, the choice is ours to choose to believe Him or not to believe Him for no matter what great things God may do, if our hearts are closed, we will never perceive Him at all for only we can open our hearts and say, "Come Lord Jesus into my heart." Only then can we see, hear and understand. May that be your answer today.
God bless
Created at 1:01 PM
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Name: Joseph Chia
Age: 28
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