QUESTION:

I know this might sound silly, but right now I’m really struggling with accepting God’s attributes in my walk right now. I make myself go crazy pounding all the stuff in my head that shows God is here, but my mind really struggles with God being spirit, seeing and hearing everyone. Is there any advice you can give me? i would really appreciate it.

Answer:

Do not worry. What you are experiencing is a common thing for Christians to feel. There is a name for this. It is called having doubts. Well… Welcome to the club. Like God said in Hebrews 11:1 “Faith is belief in things unseen.” We cannot see God. We cannot physically experience spiritual things. We cannot observe heaven. We cannot “prove” that God knows our thoughts. Our rational mind, influenced by our daily experiences, does not necessarily reinforce faith in these things. All of us struggle at times with belief in these things, especially for those of us who have a case of “paralysis of analysis.”

Nevertheless, God is real and the spiritual world is real as well. I believe you know this, but you struggle with the unseen nature of God. Let me make a couple of suggestions. First of all, I suggest you spend some time thinking about the evidence for (and against!) the existence of God. I have an outline and power point on the topic at the web site https://www.evidenceforchristianity.org/power-point-the-existence-of-god/ . There is also an audio in the “store” at the site on the existence of God. If you really want to delve deeply into this, we have an entire 10-hour course on the existence of God available as part of our Christian Apologetics Certificate. There is a link for this at the front page of our site. If you ponder the moral argument, the argument from design, the argument from cause and so forth, I believe you will realize that belief in God is the only rational view based on the nature of reality as we know it.

Another suggestion is that you consider the evidence for the inspiration of the Bible. If the Bible is inspired, then God is real and he certainly can see and hear everyone, even if part of you mind says this does not make sense! You should look at the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. I believe that this is a “slam dunk.” The facts lead to the conclusion that Jesus was raised from the dead. Also, there is the evidence for the miracles of Jesus, for the truth of his claims. There is also the spectacular evidence from fulfilled prophecies. All of these evidences are laid out clearly for you in a book I have written if you are interested. It is titled Reasons For Belief (www.ipibooks.com). Also, there is material at the web site on these questions.

In the end, despite those random doubts which come into your mind (and the minds of all believers, just so you know), if you consider the evidence, it is clear that there is a God who created the universe. If he is powerful enough to create the universe to create life, and to cause the inspired Bible to come into existence, then he certainly is powerful enough to know our thoughts–to keep track of 6+ billion people at once.

I like to keep a short list in my mind of things I know are true. I cannot prove that Esther chapter 3 is inspired by God. I cannot say for sure if God will answer any one particular prayer, but I am sure of a couple of things. I am sure that God existes. I am sure that he created the universe. I am sure that Jesus fulfilled the Messianic prophecies and that he was raised from the dead. With this short-list of things I am very confident about, it can get me through those periods of doubt.

John Oakes