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Looking for serious answers from Christians

Posted: Oct 13, 2010

Hello,

I am wondering, having always had problems with faith, what the reason is that we cannot see God. I have heard it said that this is because He wants us to have free will, but also the response to that being that we would still have free will as to whether or not we chose to worship Him and follow His laws, just as we have the option of whether or not we break the laws of man/society. I guess that is something that has always held me back, the fact that I do not understand why God would not want us to be able to see Him while we are on earth. It seems to me that even though Adam and Eve knew full well who He was and knew His rule, they chose to break the rule. We now are completely in the dark and must rely on faith alone, but I have an extremely difficult time with this. I cannot stand to see Christians ridiculed and deeply despise when those who do not believe feel it necessary to lash out against Christians, although I see so much hypocrisy from those who claim to be Christians and cannot stand that either. To me, it is fine if you do not want to believe; God gives that choice to all and humans should too, but just as bad is to claim to be a Christian and blatantly in our everyday lives behave in a manner inconsistent with Christianity.

It would seem that if we could see Him, He would have a much larger following, which is my understanding that He wants, so why is it that He does not reveal Himself to all and give us a fighting chance at eternity and leave no doubts or room for debate about his existence, only a choice of heaven or hell, eternal life or eternal damnation?

;

This can be a hard question to answer - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
There are so many different churches with different beliefs. While all christians have the same belief that Jesus was the son of God sent to Earth where he died on the cross for our sins, and he was then resurrected then ascended into heaven and will return again. The rest of the beliefs can be a little different. I grew up Missionary Baptist. Well, you would think that would be like any other Baptist, but there are many small but huge differences.

There are certain Christian's that believe it is okay to drink alcohol, others who think it is a sin. You have to understand that a Christian is still a human. Christ is perfect. We are not. We still sin. We need to do our best to be role models for others, but we still slip sometimes.

As for not seeing God, though, I may not see his actual face, I see things that let me know he is here. There are so many things in our everyday lives that he does for us, and if we just open our eyes we could see them.

A serious answer--see message - PJ

[ In Reply To ..]
We are human, so naturally faith is a very hard thing for us. God made us with 5 senses. When we cannot use our sense of sight to get to know Him, it tends to bother us, but just as a blind person uses other senses to make up for that loss of sight and goes by faith that he/she won't trip over something, we too must exercise our other senses in getting to know God.

The Bible says that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." It does not say that faith comes by seeing. He has given us this wonderful treasure called the Bible to be able to study about Him and get to know Him. A good Bible-believing church will help us hear the Word as well.

I do not believe anyone's faith would really be strengthened by seeing God. It is actually the lack of being able to see Him that should make our faith stronger. If you recall, He did come to earth in the form of Jesus. People could see Him, touch Him, talk face to face with Him, hear His words directly, and yet many still did not believe, and they put Him to death. I don't think people today would be any different. Even his own disciples fled or denied Him, and yet Jesus' words on the cross were "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

When a person, by faith, accepts Jesus Christ as his/her personal Lord and Savior, God opens that person's spiritual eyes to a faith that is much greater than anything we could ever have imagined.

If you have accepted Jesus into your heart and made Him your Lord, you have already demonstrated faith without seeing. If you truly want your faith to grow, look to Him with your spiritual eyes. If you look at others around you, they will fail you every time. As the previous poster said, we are all human and, as such, we sin. God is the only One who does not sin and the only One who does not commit hypocrisy.

I believe if you pray to Him and ask Him to strengthen your faith, He will do it, if you truly mean it and study His Word daily and talk to Him through prayer on a daily basis. It also helps to be around others of similar faith who can pray for you, and you can pray for them, as well, because all of us need prayer.

I have often found that when someone has hurt my feelings or been a hypocrite or is just plain difficult to deal with, the best remedy for the situation is to pray for that person. Many times, these are the people who have become my most cherished friends, and it was not them that changed; it was my attitude toward them that changed. It is very hard to dislike someone or think mean thoughts about them when you are praying for them every day. :)

I hope this has helped. God loves you and wants your faith to grow in Him. I prayed for you before writing and submitting this reply. It is a great thing that you are searching for answers. I don't have the answers you seek, but God does. Look to Him, and you will be well on your way to finding exactly what you need.

God bless you.

My way of looking at it - Christine

[ In Reply To ..]
I think it must be based on faith. What I hold in my hand I can see. There is no need to believe I will have it because it is already there. Christ suffered and died and said that whosoever believeth will have everlasting life. Without faith there woul be no need for the sacrifice. He wants to know if we believe and have faith in him. If we do it will be rewarded with everlasting life.

I wanted to include scripture for you - in this discussion

[ In Reply To ..]
Thomas was having doubts about the resurrected Jesus. Jesus told Thomas to touch his wounds and to not be unbelieving, but believing. Then Thomas believed and said to Him "My Lord and my God!"

John 20:29: Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."

Thomas declared that he must see and touch the Savior before he could believe in the Resurrection. Yet Jesus said that those who do not need visual evidence of His work and power would be especially blessed.

Trusting God means looking beyond what we can see to what He sees. This is the very essence of faith--we don't see God at work, but we have confidence in Him anyway. We must actively obey Him and have confidence in His love for us before He will bless us.

believe - Annie

[ In Reply To ..]
Amen, well said.

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