Being young and believing in God

Photo source :Simply Etta D.

A relationship with God is something some learnt from their parents growing up, while some others had to find God through friendships, the media, or evangelism. As time goes by, we go into the world with unlimited freedom and the opportunity to mix with a diverse population. It gets harder by day to maintain your belief in God when there are internal and external forces trying to separate you from your faith.

As youths, it is our nature to question everything. I remember my first semester in University, I had to take a philosophy class. I felt like the purpose of this class was for me to drop my belief in God as I start my University experience. Quotes such as "Religion is the opium of the people" by Karl marx, and "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful" by LA Seneca began to make sense. I stopped believing the bible for a short while and started to rely on what early philosophers thought about God. As a curious youth, it made sense. So many questions that religion couldn't answer were being answered by philosophy and science. But one day, I was praying and this bible verse came to my heart "For the foolishness of God is wiser than the human wisdom..." 1 Corinthians 1:25. It hit me that I was being led astray by the idea that everything had to make sense, and there is nothing like faith.

If you can feel God in your heart, feel him moving around you, feel him making things perfect, feel him protecting you, why do you need it to make sense to the human mind? The concept of believing in God is knowing that faith works. Because faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. If you have faith as tiny as a single sand, everything will happen for you. So it is important for us to understand that your faith is yours and it is between you and God. Looking for it to make sense takes us away from the presence of God, and like John 15:5b says, without God, you can do nothing.

I know as a young person, we all have personal struggles. It could be literally anything but I want you to understand that "God by His loving-favour you have been saved from the punishment of sin through faith. It is not by anything you have done. It is a gift from God. It is not given to you because you worked for it. If you could work for it, you would be proud.( Ephesians 2:8-9). These struggles are natural. I have spoken to my parents and older people that believe in God and they say struggles are part of life that moulds you into the person you will become. But we as young people have to make daily conscious decisions to abide in God. It may be hard, but you have to keep working with God.

What I want you to know is that God loves you regardless of whatever you do. God will never treat you badly, he will never forsake you. Everything is a lesson to help build you into the person God wants you to be. And becoming perfect is a process, it is not a 21-day fast fix. With every word that comes out of our mouth, the thoughts in our heart and our actions, let it reflect that God lives in us.

"Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love" 1 John 4:8

With love,
Bibi L'amour