Believing Well

Dear Victorious,

I've been a believer as long as I can remember. In fact, I can't remember a time when I didn't believe in God. But I meet people who haven't believed for so long, and somehow they seem to believe better than I do. I'm not sure how this is possible. Maybe it's just my perception, but it often seems that others have a much stronger faith than me. Could that be true?

Donna D. - Red Oak, TX

Dear Donna,

Certainly someone could have a stronger faith than you. But more than likely, they've just had a more dramatic faith experience than you did. Typically there are about four different stages to belief.

1. We see it as impossible to believe and we think of it as we might think of a fairy tale.
2. We investigate the facts but are still unconvinced. The facts don't overwhelm us. We may even want to believe, but just can't.
3. We encounter the truth personally and it overwhelms us. In Christianity, we encounter Christ personally on this issue, and He begins to provide the belief.
4. We commit ourselves to Jesus and to serving Him, then begin to fully understand and live the reality of what we believe.

So here's the question. Given that you've believed "for as long as you can remember," have you gone through these four stages of belief? Has Jesus Christ Himself given you your belief? Or was it given to you by your parents?

People who grow up in good Christian families tend not to have such dramatic faith experiences. Nevertheless, there comes a time for all of us when we have to take Jesus on a personal level. He shows Himself to us as individuals and we begin to have our own personal faith experience instead of the one our parents had.