Hello, I am a 17 year old male from the UK, and was brought up an atheist. I'm posting on here to ask a pressing question of mine. To me I don't feel I require faith, or religion however I'd like to try and understand why people do, so please, share your stories, why or how you have come to faith and why you feel you need it?
Please be as civil as possible.
Hello
sorry this post is a bit long, i hope you do read it though.
I'm from the UK too. I do have faith in God, but i don't just believe, i know he's there, not only because of all the things in my life that have happened to me, but i only have to look out the window to see that he's there.
A sun that forever burns and never dies, there has to be a mind behind that, and the sun is positioned just in the right place to give us light, warmth and life, and the moon to give us light in the darkness and the moon also controls the tides of the seas. The planets are all dead except for ours which is teaming with life, this can't just happen from nothing. Water is taken into the clouds and cleansed before it is sent to the earth again, the air that we breathe is freshened and cleansed every day, flowers grow and bloom without the hands of man touching them. The love in our hearts that we feel within all comes from God.
Just even life itself shows us that there has to be a God, there must be something that has created everything. You cannot create something from nothing at all, that's impossible, so there has to be something there. And i know that he is the Almighty God and he created all things.
If there was no God, why would we have a conscience? Why not just have one set of thoughts? Seeing as we only have one mind? Because God wants us to do what's right in our lives and turn from doing wrong and he's given us a conscience. And once we are born of God then our conscience becomes stronger and stronger as we grow in God, and now, even the little things that i did wrong before without even a thought, i cant do anymore, now that i am strengthened by the Spirit of God.
God is everywhere, he can hear our most inner thoughts and he hears our prayers. He's not in some far away place, and he's not in a building, he's in the hearts of his people. Although all love within our hearts is from God.
When my son was 18, he sat with me on the sofa, and there was only me and him there, and i was talking to him about God. And he said "mum how is God everywhere" and i couldn't explain it to him. So he said "well he can't be everywhere at once, so if he is, can hear me now?" and i said to him that i cant explain it but he is and yes he can.
Anyway, we have house meetings on some evenings and on Sundays, where we sit and read the Bible together and talk about the things of God. My son didn't go to them, but said that day that he wanted to come with me that evening. So he came, and at the time, my uncle led the meeting, he was a strong man of God and he was the one reading to us that night, and as we were all listening he suddenly stopped, the room was quiet, and he pointed out my son and said " good question, how is God everywhere" the thing is my son or myself hadn't mentioned it, we hadn't said a word about it since we were talking about it that afternoon. All the other people in our meeting looked puzzled, but my son sat bolt upright, he looked shocked.
Then my uncle said this, I'll never forget it.
"Can you see a satellite when you look into the sky?" And my son said no. He then said, "but you know it's there because it sends out a picture all around the world, but not everyone receives that picture, but only those with a receiver to do so. And once they have a receiver, they can see the picture. And this is like God, he is everywhere but we have to have the right heart to receive him. And when the TV receives the picture from the satellite it shows it out. Gods people do the same. We receive the life and word from God into our hearts by the Spirit of God, and we live it out and show the picture of him in our lives. And it's all done through his son Jesus. And then my uncle carried on reading the Bible.
My son and i hadn't discussed this, since we were on our own earlier that day, and my uncle had no way of knowing what we were talking about, yet he spoke to my son as if my son had just asked him the question. And everyone else in our meeting didn't know why he said it, because nothing was mentioned. I know that God was letting my son know that he is everywhere and that he heard him that day.
So God is everywhere, and all he wants is for you, me and everyone who is willing, to believe in him and love him and do what's right before him and love one another, this is why he sent Jesus, to preach the gospel and live it out, and bring us the love and life of God in the hope that we would listen and believe in him, he came to save us and take us out of darkness, and we are in darkness when we don't know God and we are living our own lives to please ourselves. He came and brought us the light to enlighten us in God and show us the way to live before God, he is the perfect example for us to follow, he brought us truth, he is the way, and his life is the only life that we should follow.
Have you ever read the Bible at all?
Feel free to ask me any questions.
Mary.