“The angels never doubted him, nor the devil either: we alone, out of all the beings that God has fashioned, dishonor him by unbelief, and tarnish his honor by mistrust.” – Charles Spurgeon
Years ago, I taught a college-age Sunday School class at a church we formerly attended. One of the young men who came on a regular basis would often bring a friend along who he went to school with. This friend was from another country and living in the United States to attend university.
One day, the students began questioning how to prove the existence of God when faced with doubt. We discussed the validity of Scripture, the miracle of creation and birth, and the intricacies of the world we lived in.
Towards the end of our conversation, our friend from another country engaged us with stories from his childhood and the poverty in which he was raised. He spoke about the fragile situation of his family dynamics and upbringing, and that receiving the necessities of life truly existed on a day-to-day basis.
As a little boy growing up in these unstable conditions, he could not put his faith in government, in people, or even in family members. The only thing he could count on was God. He said during bleak or frightening moments of life, he would talk to and pray to God for comfort.
And he said that God always answered him, in some fashion or another.
“Even if everyone in the world tells me that God doesn’t exist, it doesn’t matter. I know He is real. He showed Himself to me during some of the hardest times,” I remember him saying.
We can use logic, facts, evidence, and a myriad of other resources to prove that our God is real and that He exists.
But sometimes, recounting the ways in which God has shown Himself in our own lives is the strongest testimony we have to share. Those difficult, daunting, hopeless moments when all seemed grim, but God – and God alone – shone a ray of light into our sorrowful situation.
If I hadn’t already believed in God that day when I listened to the young man’s testimony, he would have planted a seed of curiosity in me. His childlike faith and wonder came forth as he spoke about moments I never encountered living in the safe, secure, middle-class upbringing I was raised in.
I was able to see him as a little boy, huddled in the corner of his family’s home, praying to His Father to protect him, to provide for him, to show him some glimmer of hope amidst the suffering. And now here he was sitting among us, attending university in another country, a path he had prayed for his whole life.
I could speak for days about Scriptural evidence and prophesies that prove God is real. Or tell you about the time years ago when I listened to a pastor give a phenomenal sermon on apologetics, who challenged congregants with this Truth: for our planet to be so perfectly and complexly made by coincidence or by chance would be the same odds as a tornado coming into a junkyard and magically putting together a Boeing 747.
But the best testimony I could give to someone in doubt is to tell of the unfathomable ways in which God has shown Himself in my own life. During times when all hope seemed lost, I called out to my Creator, and He answered me. That during times when I was obedient despite my fear of the future, God restored my life ten-fold.
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10)
In three different places in the Gospels, Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:13-16, Mark 8:27-29, and Luke 9:18-20.)
Jesus knew who He was; He did not need reassurance. He was curious to know what His closest friends would say.
They already knew what the crowds of people thought about Jesus: that he was either John the Baptist, Elijah, or a prophet of old who had risen.
Simon Peter answered Jesus’s question: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)
Jesus blessed Simon Peter because his answer “was not revealed to (Simon Peter) by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” (v. 17)
Simon Peter did not need the world’s approval or insight to know that Jesus was the Son of God.
Just like our college friend from another country did not need anyone else’s support or agreement to know God was real.
Simon Peter had walked alongside Jesus, he had shared life with Him, and had seen His miracles first-hand.
Our college friend had endured desolate moments with no one else to turn to but God, and God had walked beside him.
“Satan did not tempt Adam and Eve to murder, steal, or tell a lie. He tempted them to question the Word of God.” (Author Unknown)
In this world, there will be individuals, groups, and circumstances that cause us to doubt that God is real, that God loves us, that God fulfills His promises to us. When those situations arise, may we remember those still, small moments when we cried out to God and He answered us, in ways that only a loving Father can.