I won’t lie. Something that I’ve always struggled with is believing that the Bible is truth. Ever since I’ve started my journey with God, going on missions trips, talking about God in my life and all that He’s done, and even after Him literally saving my life I STILL struggle with believing the Bible. I’m just not somebody who believes something without ANY personal experiences or physical evidence. With that being said, values that I’ve held throughout my life and simply the ways my brain has always functioned is actually noted IN the Bible.
For an example, I always talk about wanting to love people. Since I’ve started reading more I can’t even express to you how much the Bible talks about love. These are just a few of the many verses.
1 Peter 4:8: “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
1 Corinthians 16:14: “Do everything in love.”
1 John 4:16: “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
1 Corinthians 13:13: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
Something else that I’ve dealt with for awhile now is depression. It’s SO real and literally can kill us slowly if we let it. I think a lot of people undermine what depression really is and it leaves us feeling so alone. I never thought that the Bible could give me any insight let alone comfort me when I feel so low.
In the Bible there’s a man named Job and basically he has a good life at first. He has a wife, kids, land, lots of sheep, and is wealthy. He’s a good man, blameless and upright. Basically, Satan attacks Job, challenging his faith in God and overall wants to prove to God that if he takes away Jobs earthly possessions and his children, then he will dump God in a minute. Satan unleashes a force that kills all of Job’s family except his wife, kills his servants, and takes his home. But guess what? Job remains loyal. He refuses to say that God doesn’t exist. Satan then gives Job a nasty rash, boils, and blisters all over his body. Job then starts to question God. After all, he was loyal and didnt renounce God, but he does insist that he deserves some kind of explanation—wouldn’t you want one? Job reaches out to his friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar for encouragment but they instead tell him that it’s his fault. After crying out to God for what felt like forever, He shows up and ends up doubling what he had before he lost it all and he lives to be an old man.
SO this story tells me that everybody suffers and God DOES notice it. In fact, he feels that pain with us and if anything trys to comfort us and bless us, even if we don’t desperately need it like Job did.
Even though I can’t relate to Job with regards to his material possessions, I can 100% relate to crying out to the Lord, questioning why things happen. Depression has attacked me so hard I have had to see a counseler, go to a behavior health center for 2 weeks, go on intense meds and I’ve even had to see people leave my life because I couldn’t get my crap together. Depression has taken some of my relationships! But, I won’t let it take me and my relationship with the Lord. Like Job, my experience has certainly humbled me.
Lastly, I want to say that I am borrowing a book from a friend called The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. Basically, its been explaining the physical evidence for the Bible and it’s taking me back. I had no idea there was actually SCIENCE to this whole thing. For those of you who need hard evidence, this and many other books are a must read.
So what is the take a way? It‘s fine to be a skeptic. I‘ve been told that those who ask God all sorts of questions make some of the best disciples because once you start to get answers, your faith grows SO much.
Ask Him to reveal Himself to us and change us. The Bible promises that if we seek God, we will find Him (Matthew 7:7). And if we allow Him to, He will transform us into new people who can know His will (Romans 12:2).
Right now, I am a skeptic. A skeptic in recovery, journeying with God and becoming a strong believer of the Bible.
