True faith in God cannot be "blind". It just can't be. There's no possible way.
A deep faith is intellectually thought out. A true faith is based on the evidence of God working in and through and around the believer. The world would have us believe that faith in God is like jumping from light into darkness. I can promise you the opposite is true. Faith in God and His son, Jesus Christ, is stepping from darkness into light. I KNOW this to be true- I've experienced it - I live it now! Just as Paul said in 2 Timothy 1:2 "I KNOW in whom I believe."
My heart and mind were created to work in unison and harmony. What I believe in my heart, I must believe in my mind. What I believe in my mind mind, I must believe in my heart. If there's conflict, then there is a lack of faith.
"My heart cannot rejoice in what my mind rejects." (author unknown). This is proven further where in Matthew 22:37 Jesus tells us we must "love the Lord your God with ALL you heart, with ALL your soul and with ALL your mind".
That, my friend, is NOT blind faith. This verse tells us we must think deeply - with our WHOLE mind and with our WHOLE heart (ie. emotions) and with our WHOLE will - whether we decide to love and follow Christ. It's a conscious decision. One that should be wrestled and even agonized over.
I know that I struggled to make the decision to follow Christ. You see, I allowed myself to be indoctrinated by the belief systems of the world. I admit that I walked willingly into that mindset.
As I became a young adult, I was in rebellion against the God I had encountered as a child. In my rage, pain and discontentment with life, I sought to prove that God was not who He said He was. He couldn't be. How could a loving God allow so much pain to exist in the world? How could a loving God allow so much pain to exist in me? I even remember wanting to prove He didnt exist!
That was, until I had an encounter with Him that I couldn't deny. I knew in that moment that He revealed Himself to me, I could no longer deny that He is the supreme God of all creation.
In that same moment, I saw myself too. I was broken in every way and shackled to sin and to my past. The chains were more than I could bare. The heaviness of life and my sins weighed in on me.
God softened my heart of stone and made it flesh. I had a choice to make.
We each have a choice to make. We can continue to live broken by the world. Believe me, God will let you carry the weight as long as you want. Or we can allow God to break off the shackles of the world and our past. We can allow Him to carry the weight. Christ already bore it ALL on the cross.
It's only when we make the choice to follow Him that we can discover the fullness of His power and joy on our life. #PickYourPain
When the agony is finished, the believer is left with a knowledge of God's deep love and the truth of what faith in His son - Jesus the Christ - really means for their life here on earth and throughout eternity. Once you've experienced God like that - trust me - you'll never turn back.
God bless,
Allison Pelphrey
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