Who is God? What is our relationship to Him?
The local bookstore will yield dozens, if not hundreds, of different answers to these questions. How are we to choose?
Given the conflicting doctrines of the world's great religions, it may seem wisest to embrace the truths common to most of them: there is a higher being, and man should love his fellow men.
This sounds good; I could believe in that.
Officially stating that I believe in god - perhaps a composite god with pieces from several faiths - is pleasing to me. It fits with my perception of myself as a good person. It can't do much more than that, however, because I've made up this god. He's imaginary.
And officially stating that I believe that man should love his fellow men will also make me feel good about myself, and it might affect my politics, but it won't make me any easier to live with. It won't change the amount of selfless love (i.e., real love) that I actually express to those around me.
For faith to mean anything, it has to be faith in something real. We need to find God Himself.
Either God actually exists or He doesn't. If He does, we must try to find Him, try to connect to Him. There can be nothing more important in life because everything else is secondary to Him. It was all made by Him.
Many who say they believe in God nevertheless ignore Him.
We can only know who God is if He tells us. And we can't hear Him telling us, if we don't listen. Our job is to seek, to express our desire, to be willing to hear whatever He says.
Most of us spend very little time seeking God's voice, and yet when we do take a moment, then we want Him to be there instantly with great power.
How arrogant of us.
If we seek deeply, humbly, and persistently, with open hearts and minds, He will reveal Himself to us. He will guide us to people who know him, to a church where he is known, maybe even to a church where he actually is.
But it takes time and patience, as well as humility, none of which is easily found.
Coming to know God (however slightly) may prove to be easy, but it is never trivial. There are real decisions to be made, important decisions. These aren't things to be decided by ourselves without the help of other people of faith.
Read on . . .