Is God real?

What does it take to make the heart believe what the mind thinks?

Bigger than that, how does the heart believe what the mind cannot fully understand?

You are peace. You are assurance; confidence. You are Provider.
You are the Almighty (all mighty). You are Creator of all things known and unknown. You are outside of time and space and therefore utterly incomprehensible to my mind. You are Holy. You are righteous. You are just.
You are Healer. You are Friend and Comforter. You are the Lover of my soul.
You restore. You redeem. You renew. You refresh.
You see all things and even better, You are all places at all times.
You are my refuge, my strong tower, my hiding place. You are my foundation, the rock on which I stand. You are my identity and purpose.
You are so much more than I could ever express with words.

But how do I know this to be true? What is it that makes these ideas of a perfect god true to me? Many would agree that if there is a God, he would have to be perfect – perfectly good, perfectly wise, perfectly loving. And isn’t this the God that the Bible teaches about? Is it not the very same God Christians and Jews have been talking about pretty much since the beginning of the world? The same God who made himself known, who sought out His people, offered himself, paid the price of restitution and still pursues us stinky, rebellious folk today? Is it not?
Then why are there so many who are opposed to Christianity? Why are there so many lost not only looking for something to believe, but desperately wanting to be able to believe that this God is true? Why? Wanna know what I think?

I think it’s because, as Christians, we don’t believe in the reality of what we teach. Sure we believe it as far as it can logically play out in our minds. And we even make room for faith in the things that we can’t clearly explain. But our belief seems only a few steps deeper than a belief in dinosaurs once existing or traveling through space. Sure these things have been proven in some form, but for most of us, they have no real relevance in our lives; it’s a peripheral thought that has no life-altering effect. What does this mean?

It means that our belief in God has not penetrated our hearts. On some level our hearts are affected, and thus there is some life change. But if I really believed in my heart that God is all of these things that I’ve listed, then shouldn’t my life reflect that belief? 

When life gets crazy and chaos presses in, shouldn’t my assurance in His peace withstand all of that? 

When I mess up and sin, when I hurt a brother or sister, shouldn’t His mercy, His grace, His forgiveness, His redemption and restoration be covering enough to carry me through without the headache of self-condemnation? 

Instead of feeling lonely, feeling unloved or abandoned and betrayed, shouldn’t there be a constant awareness of His presence at all times that is more than enough comfort and companionship regardless of the people currently in my life?

If I’m honest with myself, I can pinpoint times in my life where God has been all of these things to me. I believe Him to be who He says He is. And yet I still struggle. Not because of a lack of belief, but a shallowness of depth in that belief. Rather than my belief being so deeply ingrained that it is a natural response, it takes hours and days, sometimes weeks of wrestling before coming to the truth of the matter: what I believe must take root in my life if it is to have affect in my life. He must penetrate my heart if He is to be the very definition of me.

I believe that those who oppose Christianity oppose it because of this fact: as Christians, our lives don’t reflect the faith we declare. I believe that those who are seeking God, refuse Christ because His followers don’t measure up to the promises He makes.
I don’t believe that God needs us to defend His image. He is big enough to do that on His own. But He has placed Himself in a position that is dependent on how we respond to Him being an influencing factor in His introduction to others.

So I ask you, who is God to you? And then ask yourself if your life says the same?