Struggling with faith?
Chuck Colson has some thoughts on the topic today.
The Enormous Obstacle - Protecting Against Pride
I’ve worked hard for years to develop a biblical worldview, and I have come to the conclusion that it is the only rational explanation of the universe. One day I realized I could prove God exists. But then in my quiet time it occurred to me that I couldn’t prove that when this life is over, I’ll see Him.
It wasn’t so much a crisis of faith as one of understanding. I had gained so much knowledge about the strength of the biblical worldview that I figured I could rationally answer every question. But of course, I couldn’t — no one can.
This bothered me for a few weeks until I realized the problem. Pride, which was my original obstacle to becoming a Christian, was in the way again. I knew so much, but faith, you see, is beyond the intellect. You have to have doubts; otherwise, it couldn’t be faith.
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Now, remember, we need to understand everything we can about the world and about theology, but at some point, we have to realize that Jesus wants only our childlike faith. That’s the only way we can really love God. Otherwise, He’s simply another object to figure out. Only through faith can we learn dependence on Him.
The antidote to pride, as my colleague Ellen Vaughn writes in her wonderful new book RADICAL GRATITUDE, is reminding ourselves of all God has done for us. Whenever I think of what He has done on the cross, I realize I would be dead today without that. I would be suffocated in the stench of my own sins. And this causes me to repent of my pride, and my faith becomes renewed and strengthened. Ellen calls this experience “radical gratitude.”
Tags: Theology
May 24th, 2005 at 9:49 am
> “One day I realized I could prove God exists. But then in my quiet time it occurred to me that I couldn’t prove that when this life is over, I’ll see Him.”
I had a very similar situation occur, and it was extremely unnerving. I had spent so much time thinking objectively about God and whether or not He (almost It in my mind) was real, that I lost sight of the fact that it mattered less whether or not I could prove His existence and more about what my relationship was with Him.
The crisis of faith that followed… and still continues (I believe that to some extent we will always exist within the crisis of faith as long as we are in this life) was/is difficult. It requires daily submitting myself to God and learning to actually trust Him - because there is so little I can ever truly “know” beyond shadow of doubt.
May 24th, 2005 at 12:02 pm
Good points. I’ll add: Not only do we learn to trust Him, we learn from trusting Him. His faithfulness and goodness amazes me - yes, I take way too much for granted and I’m praying that I will move away from that - but I can’t deny that He is faithful. A couple of verses come to mind: Psalm 34:8, Acts 4:20.
I think that’s one thing that I’m learning in scripture is how God wants us to put Him to the test, and not merely approach him from an intellectual level (which for some reason is consuming so many folks). We should take our worries, cares - it all - to Him. God’s nature is always being questioned and challenged by people these days, but ironically it’s always by people that have never made the move to put their faith in Him. So to go back to logic (if that’s what they want) - no one is qualified to question God’s faithfulness unless they have put their faith in Him first.