What is Truth?
“The heavens declare the glory of God;
The skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalms 19:1
As a child, I was raised in a non-religious household. I was taught that good people do good things, with no mentions of God, religion, or church.
When I started to hear about God and religion from friends at school, I started to struggle and wonder if what I heard them say was true.
Some of the questions and thoughts that I struggled with were: How do you know there is really a God? If there are multiple religions that all worship different gods, then how do you know if they are real? Are they all real? Is one real? Or are they all made up? The stories in the Bible aren’t even realistic! I mean seriously, a man coming back to life after three days? A man being swallowed by a fish? The seas parting? And men walking in fire? Ya right. The Bible was written by a variety of men, and men are imperfect, flawed, and apparently good story tellers. But, the Bible has been around for thousands of years, which means, shouldn’t it be updated? How does this apply to me today?
Eventually, I had come to the conclusion that religion was just a way to teach morality and since everyone has different options on what is “moral”, thus we have multiple religions.
To each their own! (I thought)
But even in my skepticism, there was always something that made me ponder the existence of God: Looking into the vastness of the night sky. I have always been fascinated with space. The more I learned, the more I was in awe, and the more curious I became. I would look at the stars, knowing they were thousands of LIGHT YEARS away, outside of our galaxy, knowing there are multiple galaxies in our universe, and the fact that no one really knows how big the universe actually is. It seems to go on infinitely, and we are but just a speck inside of the expanse.
So here is what really got me thinking: If the earth is just a speck inside of this great big universe, how can we be certain that we are the only intelligent life form? In fact, I often wondered WHY are we the only intelligent beings in our galaxy? Are there intelligent beings in other galaxies? How many people are there really out there that we don’t even know about? Now, I’m not talking about aliens… or maybe I am? The way my brain thought of it was never like what you see in the movies. I just thought, with how big the universe is, surely we can’t be the only people in existence.
There’s got to be someone else, or something else out there…
Enter the one True God.
When I became a Christian, I realized that there is a God. He is out there. He created this great vast universe, and He created me. As I started to really dive into what God’s Word said, I started to find a lot of the answers that I was looking for and my faith replaced my doubt.
For example, in the book of Acts when Stephen, the martyr, was being stoned for his faith and testifying about God’s Word. In the midst of his persecution the Bible says,
“Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He said, ‘Look, I see the heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’”
There is no doubt in my mind that Stephen saw the spiritual realm, that the spiritual realm is real, and that it is where God exists with Jesus. I love how my doubts have turn into the reasons why I believe!
How fascinating that the Bible was written by different authors, across thousands of years, in different geographical locations, and is still applicable to my life today. How impressive that there were such in-depth details and prophesy of who Jesus would be and the life He would live, including dying on the cross. How incredible that God uses His Word to tell us about Him, who He is, and express His heart towards His people. And lastly, how amazing is it that God tells us exactly how to live, with both promises of blessings and consequences for our choices.
The song is true… “I once was blind, but now I see.”
When you are connected to God in Spirit, you can’t help but see Him in all that you do, whether in nature, in a moment, in a song, or even in struggle.
As a parent, I want nothing more for my children to know and experience God in their lives the way that I do. But how can I expect my children to have a deep relationship with God if I don’t model that for them? It starts with me. It starts with you.
I pray this over you, that today you would be intentional about finding Jesus in your day, look for His grace, His mercy, His love, and His presence in your life. I promise it’s there if you look for it. .
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” (Psalms 19:1)