Why God?
Updated: Mar 2, 2021
Picture this. Today is your birthday. How old are you, you ask? Well, let me tell you. Your life’s pages just paused at chapter 80. Yes, you heard me correctly, you are celebrating your 80th birthday today.
Now, I want you to take a moment and reflect.
Think about where you were in your 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. Those are a lot of years. And just like the sands through the hourglass, those are the days of your life. Lol. I hope you caught that. Anyway, imagine that at 80 years old today, you’re having the same worries, thoughts and problems that you had in your earlier years. What does it feel like at 80 to still have the same relationship issues? You were bemoaning the “fact” that there were no good prospects in your 20s and at the ripe, old age of 80, you still have the same complaint.
Financially, you realize that you have struggled all your life. Time didn’t change the amount of zeros in your checking account. What if at 80 years old you realize that every major life challenge has never truly been resolved or at least improved significantly? At that moment, how do you think you’d feel? How do you feel right now? Can you name put into words what's gripping you? That heart stopping realization that life has not improved in 62 years of adulthood would give anyone pause.
That pause is exactly why Figuring Out This God Thing is essential to you. God, the creator, your creator is the key to everything. You don’t want to receive him today and then realize that you don’t know him any better 20 or 30 years from now than the day you met him. That would be heartbreaking. Worse, you don’t want to go through life not having met him at all. Your life would suffer needlessly because you didn’t take the time to know the one who could help you navigate through everyday issues. Knowing God brings about a life of contentment, fulfillment and purpose.
Without him, you experience emptiness and spend your days seeking gratification from things and people rather than from the only one who can fill the void. It’s like a ship tossed to and fro by the winds and waves of life. There is nothing there to guide, tether or anchor it as the storm eventually tears it apart. That’s what life is like when you know of God but you don’t actually know him. Maybe you know that he exists, you’ve confessed Jesus as lord of your life, but then nothing...everything stalled...nothing really changed. You didn’t take the time to Figure Out This God Thing.
What does it mean to Figure Out This God Thing?
At its core it means that you’re taking the time to purposely consider what you know about God and discover whether you are where you’re supposed to be in your relationship with him. If you are, wonderful, keep reading as this may help someone you know. If not, then you make the decision to grow until you are. This platform was built to help with that in that it shows you God’s nature so that you can learn from him and build trust with him. Once that’s established you can then learn how to take what God says in the bible and apply it to real life situations.
It helps you incorporate God’s word into each day so that you don’t just rely on the limits of what you know. And no matter how smart or experienced you are, there are definitely limits to what you know. Learned that one the hard way. Relying on you alone keeps you from realizing your fullest potential. Relying on a limitless God gets you there. The platform also teaches you to daily acknowledge him in all your ways and allow him to direct your path. As I said before, it is important to the course of your life to make Figure Out This God Thing a primary focus.
There is a scripture in the bible that says. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...”. It is found in Hosea 4:6 KJV. This message changed my life. You see as I was in my beginning stages of Figuring Out This God Thing, I erroneously thought that God was going to come into my life and magically work out all of my problems simply because I confessed my belief in him. To my dismay, I realized that was not how this God thing worked. God was not coming in to. rescue me from my life and all of the problems attached to it. He showed me that I would actually have to be an active participant in this journey and that loving him gave me all that I needed to enjoy life to the full even when things are tough. But I actually had to read the bible for myself. I had to seek to understand what the scriptures meant through prayer and study.
The bible was not a genie bottle that I could rub and all my
dreams would come true.
There was real work involved here and isn't that what building a relationship is all about? And what you find out is that the rewards of that work are amazing. Hosea 4:6 woke me up to the realities that I could actually suffer through life if I neglected to take seriously building a relationship with the one who made me and loves me in ways that I didn’t, and still don’t, understand. This meant making learning him through his love letter, the bible, and making talking to him daily in prayer a priority. I took charge of my life and realized that building a relationship with God was entirely up to what I was willing to put into it. It was up to me how much I chose to learn about him. It was up to me to decide daily whether I would grow in him or just continue to coast on my own definition of what this should be. I knew that I didn’t want my life to suffer due to a lack of knowledge. For me, Figuring Out This God Thing would be as essential to my life as breathing. Jeremiah expressed God’s desire to get to know us.
“When you come looking for Me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed”.
Isn’t that worded beautifully? I wish I could take credit for the eloquence of that statement but you can find that in Jeremiah 29:11 in the Message bible. Whether you are curious or serious about figuring this out, God is here to help you. That is why he brought you here as we continue this journey together. Pray this simple prayer with me: Lord, I am committed to knowing more about you. You promised that you would meet me at the point of my need. You know where I stand at this moment. You know my needs, wants and desires. You know your plan and purpose for my life. Help me to take the next step in Figuring Out This God Thing. You said the steps of a good man [woman] are ordered by the Lord. Order my steps, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
I have one more thing for you. If you need a place to start to learn him, I would begin with his characteristics. Each one of them is reflected in different names by which he was called at the time of the stories of the bible. So if you are interested, I suggest reading Trusting in the Names of God: Drawing Strength from Knowing Who He Is by Catherine Martin. Need to somehow link to the book on my page. Or should we just jump to Amazon? Also should we place an image of the book here?