I was 6 when my family began regularly attending church. For the last half a century I have read my Bible, visited a plethora of churches, and listened to many Bible teachers. I’ve naturally adopted theologies along the way.
Today I am 60. When I was in my 40’s, I noticed my conflicting ideas about God’s character, and His thoughts about me. Comparing these contradictory opinions left me confused. I began untangling the mess in my mind by measuring my beliefs to what the Bible plainly says, instead of believing what someone said without chapter and verse. Clearly, I should have been doing this all along.
I don’t claim to understand everything about God and His love for me, but this I know; I am closer than I ever have been. God’s love is woven throughout the Bible, and I am always on a search for it.
Deconstruction of faith is a popular topic these days. Many of us are steeped in religion gone wrong. When ideas do not line up with Biblical truth, they mess us up every time. Some people come out of one incorrect belief system only to move into a different faulty one. Others walk away from God, wanting nothing to do with Him. There are also those who conclude God does not exist.
Maybe I have experienced my own deconstruction of faith. After the dust has settled, I have found God to be more loving and kinder than I ever dreamed. He is not mad at us, and everything He does proves it.
I am beginning a new series to share some of the things I have learned. I will be posting articles over the next couple of months on God’s love. Some have been posted in the past, but they have been on my heart, so I am updating and re-releasing them.
Whatever you know about God, and no matter what you believe, I hope my words will encourage you to dig deeper into the Bible to experience God’s love in a more personal way.
Paul prayed a prayer for the believers at Ephesus. I echo his prayer for you.
“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:14-19 (NKJV)
Join me tomorrow for day one of my new series on God’s love.