We like for things in our life to be real. When we buy a couch, we want it to be genuine leather not fake leather. When we buy a diamond ring, we want the ring to be an actual diamond, and not cubic zirconia. And when we are looking for friends, we want them to be real, honest, authentic people. Our desire for something to be real is so strong that it even extends to pain. When we experience pain, we want it to be from a real source, and not an imaginary one. Afterall, it’s hard to treat “imaginary” pain. This is no different when we are looking for God. We want him to be real, genuine, and authentic. But this is difficult because we usually test real things with multiple senses. If you’re thirsty in the desert, you might see water on the horizon. But that’s only one sense. Your sight may be a mirage. Until you can see it, taste it, feel it and hear it, it could be a simple perception issue. So how do we know that God is real? We can’t see him, touch him, or feel him. Or can we?
Throughout the years, I’ve been astounded at how intricate the Bible is. As a source outside of myself, it testified to something bigger and more honest than me. Major concepts in the Old Testament are exquisitely interlinked with truths in the New. The more I read the Bible, the more real I perceived God to be. I kept finding him among its pages over and over again. Then I began to find the God of those pages in the pages of my life.
Real evidence for his realness was in my very being. When I did something wrong, a pang told me so. If I lied, or lusted, or hated, or stole, the pang messed with my gut, and with my mind. A standard was being applied inside of me that could have only been established from a source outside of me: a real God had written a code of conduct on my heart that applied to me and to everyone else.
As my relationship with him increased, I began to see him in my own history. Things in life that I thought were bad, he had been using for my good. I understood why he made me live in one place instead of another, and why he directed my steps to one career instead of another. I began to see him in my marriage, and in my relationships, and in my failures, and in my victories. He was a real God who was active in the realities of my life.
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