Belief in God is a choice. There is intellectually sound, reasonable arguments to consent to the Christian doctrines in the Bible, if only one would objectively explore them. One does not have to be naive to believe in the supernatural. Unbelief actually takes more effort than it does to believe, because to miss out on the matters of the gospel requires one to look past a lot of truth. As a result, we have no excuse for unbelief, which may be why it is the unforgivable sin. If we die as unbelievers in Romans 10:9, then we die unsaved.
Once we get past the issue of faith in God, we enter into new territory of struggles in belief. This new issue is less about if God is real, and more about if we can trust Gods promises. Sure, we may intellectually understand His promises, but that is much different than trusting.
Unbelief is an attitude. It is basically unwillingness to believe or accept things as God wants us to. It is a tendency to rationalize everything and try to understand the world and God through our extremely limited perspective.
Hebrews 11:6 – And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him
When we go to God with a prayer or a petition, He expects that we believe He exists, and that He loves us, and therefore will answer ur prayers. When we pray things like “If there is a God, please bless me with the Holy Spirit, if something like that exists” it displeases God and He may not hear us.
Unbelief can be countered with faith, and faith comes by hearing the Word of God
When the metaphorical solder cries out in the fox hole for the first time as an atheist who is willing to accept a miracle when he needs one most, and would be just as inclined to put God right back up on the shelf again afterwards, then God is not likely to reveal Himself.
In James, it says that we can seek wisdom and expect to get it in abundance, but we must seek it in faith. With out doing so in faith, we cut ourselves off from Gods promises.
Jesus had a very successful ministry. He healed many people, drove out demons, and even raised people from the dead. His fame spread wide and it reached His own city of Nazareth. Jesus loved His people and shared something fantastic with them. He read a prophecy about Himself from the book of Isaiah and declared to the people that it is He who has come to fulfil this prophecy. In other words He was telling them cryptically that He is the promised Messiah. It was a huge deal for the Jews to welcome their Messiah. The people here however took Jesus for granted. They knew Him from when He was a child. They discussed among themselves saying this guy here … is he not the Son of Joseph the carpenter? They failed to perceive the anointing of the Holy Spirit on Him. Their minds reasoned away the revelation they just received. They rejected Jesus, threw Him out of the city, and tried to kill Him.This trend continues today, people who know Jesus from birth and are born Christians are often the ones mostly likely to take Him for granted. They are just as easily able to be the ones who doubt, question, and refuse Him.
Let us remove any barriers of unbelief from our own lives. Whether unbelief looks like a lack of faith altogether, or it is our failure to rest on the promises of God. We cut ourselves off when we project our limits onto God. God is so far above us, and all that is understood on earth, that we mine as well be talking about how high the heavens are above the earth!
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