Updated 7/25/2022
Is it possible to live our lives with confidence in God’s love and care for us? Too often, my abilities let me down. I mess up more often than I want to admit. Too often, others let me down. I expect more than they have to offer or want to. However, I know that my Savior, Jesus Christ, will never let me down! You may think, “That’s quite a bold statement to make! How does she know?” or “Yeah, right!” There are three reasons I can be confident that my God will never leave me. First, the narratives in the Bible record God’s interactions with and His instructions to all people. Second, the witness of Jesus’ believers through the ages shows God’s love and power. Third, I have experienced His loving care throughout my life.
Can We Believe The Bible?
The consistency of the Bible books and the available archaeological and historical evidence convince me that the Bible is reliable and true.
According to Robert Velarde from an article titled “How Do We Know The Bible Is True”:
“Evidence for the Bible can take many forms. There is, for instance, physical evidence. We have copies of the manuscripts and throughout history these copies show that the Bible has been transmitted accurately. Despite common skeptical claims that the Bible has often been changed through the centuries, the physical evidence tells another story. The New Testament records are incredibly accurate. There are minor differences in manuscripts, called variants, but none of these variants impact or change key Christian beliefs or claims.”
“Other physical evidence includes archeological finds. The Archaeological Study Bible presents many notes and articles documenting how archeology has again and again proven that the Bible does correspond to historical reality.”
“There are other kinds of evidence that the Bible is true. These have to do with internal consistency and coherence. Although the Bible was written over many centuries by different writers, the messages it contains are coherent and consistent. The Bible presents a coherent theology and worldview and presents this material consistently. Moreover, the Christian worldview is robust, reasonable and grounded in history.” More information can be read at http://www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/the-study-of-god/how-do-we-know-the-bible-is-true/
The Witness of Believers
The second reason for my faith in Jesus, is the two thousand plus years of writings and history related to the followers of Jesus. The New Testament portion of the Bible is filled with the writings of people who saw Jesus after He came back to life. Many people throughout history have sacrificed comfort and money to live their lives in honor of Jesus by serving isolated people groups who had never heard of Him. Love motivated them. They’ve been persecuted and even executed for Jesus.
There are others in this world that will give their lives for their beliefs, but love does not motivate them. They are motivated by what they think they will gain. True Jesus followers, already know they have forgiveness of sins, God’s love, and a home with Him in heaven. They want to love others, because God first loved them. Other religions are about man’s efforts to get to God, while only Christianity is about God coming to rescue us, because we couldn’t do it on our own.
This does NOT mean that Jesus’ followers are sinless. We are still human and mess up daily like everyone else. I don’t deserve His forgiveness and love and yet He showers it on me. None of us deserves it. Yet He showers love and forgiveness on all of us. It’s a gift from God to us. Daily, I have to ask for forgiveness for my wrongdoing and accept God’s gift of forgiveness. If we don’t take hold of the gift, we don’t possess it. That is where the gift of free-will comes in. We can choose to accept God’s love and share it with everyone we meet, or we can turn our backs on it and live to please ourselves.
God’s Loving Presence in My Life
This leads to the third reason I have confidence in my God. He has been present and guiding me through many difficulties in my lifetime. Just to clarify, becoming a believer in Jesus will not shield us from problems and troubles. This world is full of brokenness. Jesus told the early believers that they would have troubles, but to be glad because He had overcome the world by rising from the dead. God can turn anything into something good. He can turn sorrow into rejoicing and heal broken hearts and bodies.
He healed me after my painful divorce. It took years to undo the sorrow of twenty-one years of a difficult marriage, but today I am stronger in Jesus than I ever was before. I have healthier relationships with my children. We never lacked for anything physical like food, shelter, etc. when I was newly divorced and jobless. Complete strangers would show up at my door with food, clothes for my children, and even Christmas gifts. He also provided me with a wonderful church and friends. I wanted everything to be better immediately, but it took a lot of time. Looking back, I can see His hand moving in my life and in the lives of my children.
Another example of God’s faithfulness to never leave me occurred earlier when my youngest child was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer at age three and a half. We were far away from home and the local church took us under their wing and provided babysitting for my older children, food, visits in the hospital and prayer. I felt carried in God’s arms. Watching my young son suffer was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, but I knew Jesus understood, because He had suffered terribly for me and my son when He was on the cross.
I did not understand why he was so sick, but I held onto the scripture verse that says “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…” (Romans Chapter 8 verse 28) Today, that son is healthy and strong. God has been so good to me!
Thoughts on Difficult Times
After reading the last section, you may wonder HOW on earth I have faith in a loving God after suffering through divorce and experiencing my child having cancer? My faith was shaken to the core when my marriage collapsed. I walked away from church and reading my Bible. I wanted God to fix it now. Only with the perspective of time did I realize God was fixing it, just not the way I wanted it to happen. I needed to pull away from church to untangle what was true from what were lies, because I thought I had to work to make God love me. I thought He was punishing me for leaving my husband. In reality, He led my children and me out of oppression to a better place. We had to heal though, before we could truly live freely.
The evil one, satan or the devil, does not want us to live free of his lies. He works endlessly to keep us trapped in lies. He does this, because when we are trapped in his lies, we cannot see that God is right there with us. We cannot see God’s love either. Therefore, we need to remind ourselves constantly of God’s promises in the Bible, so we can counter the evil one’s lies.
No matter how dark those days were, God never left me. I know this deep in my soul. I also know that He has not left you in the dark either. Recently, I was feeling discouraged with health issues and He reminded me through a song on the radio that I was not alone. How precious is the love of my God! His love is there for you as well. Here’s the song:
In Closing
To recap, my confidence in God’s love comes from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ recorded in the Bible. It comes from other people’s lives of faith that encourage me. I am confident in God’s love, because I have experienced His care and love for me in my life. My Savior loves every single person He has created, including you! He longs for a close relationship with each of us, even you! Do you have this confidence? If you would like more information, click here.
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Till next time, Kathy
