I believe in God because I have experienced God in my life. Full stop.
I’ve found encouragement for this simple answer about this foundation of my faith in the story of a blind man in John 9. When challenged by the religious leaders about Jesus, this man gave an irrefutable response: “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
Here’s a link to the whole chapter if you want to read this interesting story:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%209&version=NRSVUE
What do I mean when I say I have “experienced” God? I have not witnessed a dramatic miracle like the burning bush that Moses saw in the wilderness. My experiences are closer to what John Wesley described in his Aldersgate experience, which he described: “I felt my heart strangely warmed,” and the changes in his life from that experience led to the founding of Methodist practices.
I remember one time I was walking to my car in a parking lot, my mind spinning trying to solve some personal challenge that I can’t remember. I happened to look up at the right time to see leaves backlit by the sun and glowing in a breathtaking emerald green color. In the distraction of this beautiful sight, I felt a mental nudge that reminded me that since God has enough time to craft such a wonderful scene for me, God certainly has enough time for me to let God work on my challenges. I remember this encounter as my personal “lilies of the field” experience, drawing me to what Jesus taught in Luke 12:26-28.
While this is my experience, it may not be your experience. In my walk, I’ve heard and read many different ways that people have described experiences with God, and how these experiences gave them their own reasons to believe in God. Different people respond positively to different situations, and it is very good for the Kingdom that there are so many different experiences that lead us into a relationship with God.
Be careful, though. There is a danger that we can become too enamored with our personal wisdom and our arguments to defend our wisdom. Insisting others find God the same way we have can distract or confuse someone seeking God from the Truth we want to share. As with so many things in this world, the more complicated the approach, the greater the chance of failure. For example, I remember one book I read as a child that created elaborate explanations to scientifically prove God, but their arguments were so thin that even a kid could poke holes in their proofs.
Paul experienced this kind of challenge at times in his ministry, particularly when dealing with the difficult people in the church at Corinth. See how Paul describes his simple approach in these verses from 2 Corinthians 2:
When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the testimony of God to you with superior speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were made not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. (NRSVUE)
My encouragement to you: know your story of what God has done in you, and practice how you might share that story with others. Seekers may not be ready just yet to accept that what the Bible says is true, and you never know when a seeker might be a legitimate expert that could deflate what you consider “proof” of God. What you want to do instead is to offer yourself to a Seeker as a living example of God. Let them hear the sincerity of your personal story, let them sense the God-given Love you have for them, and let them see the impact that God’s Love is having on who you are becoming.
JM
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