Faith is easy to get, but hard to accept. It’s so easy to get but hard to believe that something so amazing could be that easy.
Can it really be that easy to just say “I believe” and then you do?
Sometimes when people take that big “leap of faith” to say “I believe” they think more about what they might lose instead of what they might gain.
When I say faith, I am talking about believing in God. Believing that God is a person, not an idea. Believing that not only did he create the heavens and the earth and everything in them, but that he created you (and me!).
Some people think that if they choose to follow God they will have to give up a whole big chunk of their lives.
Can you identify with those thoughts?
Before I became a Christian I wanted to have some faith but I didn’t want to have it badly enough to do anything about it. I was not desperate. I wasn’t even asking any questions about it.
My Aunt Lottie was a Christian and she had this quiet acceptance that God was real and that he was interested in every detail of our lives. She talked about God as if he was a person, not an idea.
I can remember when I was in my twenties saying to my sister “I’d like to believe, but I just don’t. And I certainly can’t seem to muster it up.” She said “Me too” and yet we stayed settled into our own lives of unbelief for a little while longer.
My sister became a Christian first and as always led me onto greater things for my life. She gave me a book to read and one day, after reading that book about a young Christian mom and how God helped her every day with every little thing I thought “I could use help too” and so I said,
“God, I would like to believe and I choose to believe”.
I chose faith.
That was the beginning of a lifelong journey with God. I have never looked back. I have never wavered from that faith.
But I have had good reason to lack faith, everyone does. I have suffered through this depression on and off for over 25 years. I have endured chronic pain most of my life. I survived divorce and endured a broken heart. You might wonder how I can believe in a God that has allowed all that to happen. I just choose to. Has faith in God made my life easy? No, but it has made my life better.
In the midst of my trials, I have had his comfort and strength, his love and forgiveness. I have had someone to turn to when I suffer. I have hope that when life gets tough it will not stay that way.
And I have the greatest hope of all – heaven! The hope that someday when I die, I will not really die, but I will go on to live the best life ever where there will be no more sorrow and no more tears.
What about you?
Maybe 2024 will be the year you choose God. Maybe 2024 will be the year you choose to draw closer to him and let him draw closer to you. That is my prayer for you.
