I want to believe in God

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LucyT25

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I feel like a lost soul leading an empty life. I was raised Catholic and I was religious as a child, but as I got older I questioned my faith. Now I’m 35 married with two young children and I wonder if I’m so miserable because I don’t have my faith anymore. I feel like something is missing from my life. I try to believe in God but I feel I don’t have proof that he exists. I want something to believe in but it’s like my mind just can’t believe in something I have no proof of. I’ve tried going to a Catholic Church and a nondenominational Church but I just don’t have faith. Any advice on how to believe in god? Can you show me that God exists?
 
Hi Lucy, Welcome to the forums!

I recommend grabbing some of CS Lewis’ books on Christianity, especially The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity. They’re both fairly easy reads, and they don’t read how you’d expect a ‘religious’ book to read. CS Lewis had a profound impact on my faith, And you might find his insights helpful.
 
What kind of evidence would you like? there is evidence in the design of the universe, evidence in the person of Jesus, plus we have the Bible, which could not have been written by mere mortals. God put the desire in your heart to come to Him. He is already working in your life and He wants you to repent of your sins and believe in Him.

God is teaching you to be humble. You don’t have to worry about believing enough, repenting enough, confessing enough, etc. Surrender all of your attempts to be good enough. Christ already purchased your salvation on the cross. All you have to do is turn from your former life and cling to Christ. Once you do that, the Holy Spirit will assist you in your walk of holiness. He will change you and will make you obey God’s statutes.

We know that this world could not have happened by chance. There had to have been an intelligent designer for biological life to exist. To believe that it is an accident is a huge step of faith, which I would say is proof that atheists have faith in something. They never have anything good to say about religion, but they have faith that life happened by chance; and faith is religious in essence. All who want to come to Christ will find Him. Just look with sincerity and He will appear. That’s what He did for me and countless others here on CAF. 🙂
 
Try going back to when you were a child. Sometimes as we grow, we think ourselves into a hole.

Open your heart and pray to the Holy Spirit for faith. Ask him to help your unbelief.

Believing is really done with the heart and not the mind.
 
Your desire to believe in Him is the longing He places in us all. Maybe throw your self into some type of adult faith study program on a topic of your choosing. It could start off feeling like just work you aren’t sure you believe in, but there will be either little nuggets of consolation or giant mind blowing ones waiting in there just for you and your heart.
 
I’ll give you three Scripture verses that may point the way to faith for you:
  1. First, you asked “Can you show me that God exists?” That is the wrong question, leading to the wrong result. The Apostle Thomas wanted such a visible (and tangible) “proof”:
Jn 20:24 Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came, after Jesus raised Himself from the dead:
25 So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26 Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
28 Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
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God’s way to believing is not through seeing. It is through hearing:
Romans 10:10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
…
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach?
15 And how can people preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring [the] good news!”
…
17 Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.
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And one more:
Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.
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To sum it up: Listen to God’s Self-revelation in Holy Scripture. Listen until you begin to hear what only God can say to you.
 
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Dear LucyT25, I suspect that each of us has to find our own reasons to believe. And to keep on believing. There are many times I have questioned the existence of God. And I keep coming back to the first time I questioned God. I said, "You know, God, there are people who say You don’t exist. And I “heard” or imagined the response, “But they didn’t ask Me.”

I do not think that the wisdom of that response was my wisdom. Only God really knows for certain that He exists, so He is the only One we can ask such a question of. No human being will be able to answer this question with complete authority. Like, the only person who can say with complete authority that there is a London is someone who has been there. The rest of us take it by faith that London exists.

And no one else but God is able to give the kind of answer that the questioner will be able to recognize came from God Himself. Only God can tailor a miracle so personal to the one who asks. One woman came to believe because of the perfection of her baby. Another because her house sold and she and her husband found and bought a new one, all in one week.

It’s the old advice that I am giving, I guess. Act like God exists, and pray to Him. And He will show you that He exists.

(In addition, I would say, if He gave you the wonderful gift of being born and raised Catholic, that’s where He means you to be. The Catholic faith has an answer to all your questions. There are no new questions under the sun. So, in acting like God exists, my bet advice is to do so in a Catholic setting. And I am praying for you, as are all those who have answered you. We are all on the same side. We all want to know the Truth.)
 
Dear Guest1, thank you for this link to Jimmy Akin’s three answers! I always enjoy the way he thinks!
 
I am going to list some debates that will help you see the both the Catholic and Atheist side, i feel like my faith got stronger after those debates.
(in some of them not all topics are covered, for exemple the Canaanites topic was not covered but you can research it and find that its not as bad as it seems).
  • DEBATE: God’s Existence - Trent Horn Vs. Alex O’Connor (@CosmicSkeptic)
  • Does the Christian God Exist? Trent Horn vs. Dan Barker Debate
  • Does God Exist? - Trent Horn vs Raphael Lataster
  • God: Supreme Being or Imaginary Friend?
i was going to link them but it would make the post really big, just ctrl-c/ctrl-v the names on youtube, have some notes and prepare some popcorn becuse that is going to be like riding a intelectual rollercoaster.
 
Dear ush, “might be punishment from God”? Yes. But suffering is a “punishment” from our loving Father that ALWAYS serves the greater purpose of Love. He disciplines those He loves, so that we will come closer to Him, both emotionally and in the reality of the Cross, which God Himself took on Himself and suffered at our hands. He never gives up on us.
 
LucyT25 said:
I feel like a lost soul leading an empty life. I was raised Catholic and I was religious as a child, but as I got older I questioned my faith. Now I’m 35 married with two young children and I wonder if I’m so miserable because I don’t have my faith anymore. I feel like something is missing from my life. I try to believe in God but I feel I don’t have proof that he exists. I want something to believe in but it’s like my mind just can’t believe in something I have no proof of. I’ve tried going to a Catholic Church and a nondenominational Church but I just don’t have faith. Any advice on how to believe in god? Can you show me that God exists?
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Questioning is a difficulty. Faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit, so it is important to remain in a state of supernatural grace.

Catechism of the Catholic Church
143 By faith , man completely submits his intellect and his will to God. …

153 … Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him . "Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; …
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LucyT25 said:
I feel like something is missing from my life. I try to believe in God but I feel I don’t have proof that he exists. I want something to believe in but it’s like my mind just can’t believe in something I have no proof of.
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Your situation sound similar to mine way back when. One day I got to thinking about my daughters & how much I loved them. & that got me to thinking what is love?

It occurred to me I first experienced true love the moment I first saw my eldest daughter. There were no strings attached at that moment. She didn’t need to do anything for me, she didn’t have to act a certain way, she didn’t even have to love me back. My whole life from that moment on would be lived in service of her.

So then I got to thinking, where does this love come from?

To me, it was like a force of nature that originated outside of me & flowed through me. I looked at some other things but eventually came back to the Gospel of John. & it all started to make perfect sense.

Ok, maybe not perfect, but reading the Gospel understanding God is trying to reveal Himself to us… life started making sense.

So if anyone asks me for proof of God’s existence I tell them about the love I have for my daughters. The love my parents have for me. The love their parents had for them, etc…

I understand not everyone had perfect parents (I didn’t & I’m not a perfect parent) but that love that is there & the love that “should be there” can tell us a lot about God.
 
LucyT25, you explained the same state I was in back in 1976.

The thing to remember is, no one in here can make you have faith.

“Faith,” is a gift from God. It is His revelation of Himself to you, however that may happen.
The best we can do is be open to faith.

So, if in your heart you want faith, go to the source of faith, Jesus Christ. Have Him reveal Himself to you. But be open, for it’s rarely from an apparition like we see in the movies, but more of a subtle way that can only have meaning to us.

Only his transforming grace can bring us to faith.

God Bless
 
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If you’re looking for reasonable evidence and you like to read, I would suggest Mere Christianity or The Case for Christ.

I would also suggest praying everyday. Just tell God you would like to believe in Him, but have no faith, and that if he’s really there to make himself known to you. Then take a minute to tell Him what your thankful for, and the problems you’re having.

It’s only a couple of minutes, what have you got to lose?
 
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ush said:
Further if you’re feeling miserable it might be punishment from God for your sins. I hope this helps
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How in the world would this help? No offense, but I don’t understand.
 
It’s interesting that you emphasize listening. One of your quoted Scripture passages mentions hearing but the other two speak of things not seen.

Anyway, my own belief seems to be provoked not by things seen or heard, but is more of a quiet sense of God’s presence.

Perhaps this sense is formed by observing and discerning the action of God —“the Hand of God” — in my life. That’s seeing and hearing, plus something more, the gift of a seed of faith, I guess.
 
As a young man, I hated the Church and swore routinely.

Then I prayed insistently and tried to adapt my behavior to the Ten Commandments as the Church presents them: I understood that I could not first convert and then change my life, but that it had to be the opposite.

It worked.

This is my experience, nothing more.
 
I will pray for you. I often have found (in time of difficulty trusting in God) that praying “Lord, grant me faith.” Or “I believe, help my unbelief.” Is helpful.

One thing that I may point out is. Where do you suppose the sense of this awareness of emptiness is coming from? Where do you suppose the thought that maybe it’s due to “a lack or lost faith” comes from? I would suggest that perhaps consider it the gentle whisper from on high to come back home…

Even the slightest desire to come back home to Him at the Altar that you use to partake in as a youth is a granule of faith itself and a love note to seek Him once again. 😊
 
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