Why faith?

  • Thread starter Thread starter bpbasilphx
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Why do I believe?

Without faith in God, my life is meaningless. Faith gives me answers to the big questions of where did I come from? Why am I here? and where am I going? Faith has taught me the meaning of life. Christianity provides us with the reason for our existence - to know, love and serve God. My faith gives me assurance that life is not pointless, meaningless, and without purpose. We are all here for a reason. Life is not just a freak accident. Faith makes me believe that my life is not worthless; I know that God created me out of love in order to share in his eternal life. Faith gives me a reason to do something good with my life; if life had no purpose, then I wouldn’t care about what I did. My only goal in life would be to satisfy my own selfish needs and desires, because there would be nothing else to look forward to; I wouldn’t get a second chance, and I would look to gain as much as I could from this life before the end of my existence.

I was afraid of death, and terrified of dying. I couldn’t deal with the thought of my own mortality. The thought of ceasing to exist after this life really bothered me. However, faith provides me with great comfort because I know that there is life after death. I know that death isn’t really the end - it’s just the beginning. In a strange way, death is a liberation now that I believe in Christ. I have faith that Christ will save me from death and that I will share in everlasting life with God and all of his saints. It gives me joy to think that I will one day see my loved ones in the Kingdom of Heaven. I will once again see my departed friends and relatives. This is a wonderful thought and one that brings immense comfort. I no longer worry about my life or its trials because I know Christ is there to help and guide me.

Faith in God gives me the strength and courage to continue in times of loneliness and despair. I know that Christ is with me and that he has a reason for testing me. I like to believe that bad things happen for a good reason, and that they aren’t simply random occurances designed just to hurt. Faith in Christ leads me to believe that suffering in this life has a great purpose. Pain helps to bring about the good, and doesn’t exist solely to torment us. I always remember that Christ suffered in this life, and this helps me to cope in rough times.

Faith gives me hope for the future. I know for certain that good will ultimately triumph over evil. I don’t worry about what will happen to me, or this world as a whole because I know that Christ will one day return in glory. Christ is our ultimate end. I don’t worry about wars, famines, or anything bad because I know that Christ will eventually win. The gates of Hell will never prevail because Christ is with us always.

In a certain way, faith makes me feel in control of my life, and of my destiny. I know that I am responsible for what will happen to me in the end. It gives me peace to know that every action has a consequence, and that I have the power to change my destiny. Faith teaches us that it is always possible to repent, and change our lives for the better. Christ will always forgive us no matter how bad we have been. We are not powerless, and we are not victims of fate. We all have the ability to take control and accept the love of God. My life is not controlled by anyone or anything - I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul. And I know that Christ will always support me in the good that I do, and forgive me for the sins that I commit. If I didn’t have faith in the mercy and love of Christ, I would feel nothing but despair.

This is why I choose to believe in God.
 
I could answer: “Because God has given me the gift.” But that would just be admitting, I don’t really know why I have faith…
 
Why do you believe?

You know… I’m currently asking myself that same thing. There’s an answer… somewhere, but it refuses to show itself. 😦

Ironically Yours, Blade and Blood
 
OneTrueCathApos said:
I had never even heard of Padre PIo, the saint with the stigmata of Christ, until I went and prayed over his relic, a glove and I was immediately transformed…but that story is for another time.
I also had an inner locution from God. So, I wouldn’t feel this way if there were no God. He really does exist. Whenever I feel down , I think of these 5 words he spoke to me (audibly):

"ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE, HAVE FAITH".
Click to expand...
I would love to hear the story though. 🙂

If you have it written somewhere, can you pm me?

I read his story when I was young and I would say that he is one of my earthly guides even though I have never met him.
 
bpbasilphx said:
To put it another way, why do you believe?
Click to expand...
At first it was just an assent to what I’ve been taugh. Now it is because I have experienced it. I know God is love. And the more I read, the more convinced I am of it.

Too many little miracles.

As per St Augustine, once I decided to believe, then I did truly see.
 
I believe in God because it goes against every scientific law I know for Physical reality to appear out of nowhere, or to have been around forever and uncreated and to have randomly just exploded into everything that is.

Being born into a family of Bible believers, perhaps it’s appropriate to say I continue to believe in Christianity because there is good reason to believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead nearly two thousand years ago; among those reasons was the fact that apparently 500 people saw Him, no body was ever found, and other reasons, none of which any other religious founder has ever had claim to.

I believe in Catholicism because Jesus prayed that His entire Church be One, and He clearly gave the Apostles, particularly Peter, the authority to teach as a living, breathing, but eternally stable force. Only the Catholic Church has both that eternal stability and that living breathing Spirit, so that our Faith and Morals never change, but so that our practices and disciplines, as well as our understanding of our unchanging Faith and Morals, can evolve and grow as appropriate, all as we who are loyal to the Pope and Magisterium remain absolutely One as Jesus prayed.

Also, certain miracles, such as Eucharistic miracles, certainly have their part in reaffirming my Catholic Faith.
 
When I was born in early September rather than late October, weighing 1 lb 9 oz and with many very grave health problems as a result, the doctors told my mother than I would not live. She believed in God over them.

When I survived, much to their shock, and she was allowed to bring me home in December, the doctors told her that I would be permanently brain damaged and unable to live in or interact at a meaningful level with “regular” society. She again believed in God over them.

When at the age of 6 I was beset with a 103 degree fever, violent convulsions, hallucinations of Satan and other things requiring emergency trips to the hospital followed by emergency trips to church (after time spent in the hospital revealed no medical reason for any of it), she again placed her faith in God even after I was brought back from the church in essentially the same condition and she was told that this would either kill me or subside. She prayed A LOT, and God answered her prayers. (I have no real memory of any of this; she told me about this period of our lives after she was striken with cancer, when I was around 12-13).

When I was the victim of an attempted kidnapping on Catalina Island only a year or two later and she and a friend rescued me, she thanked God for having spared me once again from He-knows-what!

These are all big, dramatic events that happened in my childhood that showed me (when I was old enough to understand them in the context of faith) incontrovertible proof of the existence of God, of His power and grace, and of the power of prayer in our everyday lives. In a sense, I have faith because of this very “old testament” sort of experience (a bad use of the term, I know, but I mean to say that my experience of God from the very beginning was very real in a sensory sort of way: physical, direct, intimate, and mysterious…not an abstract sort of intellectual and emotional “acceptance” of God as my savior…He was saving me in very real ways before I ever knew Him!).

Today these sorts of things don’t happen to me. I don’t know why, but I’m glad either way. But I keep my faith because after all of this and more, He is what remains. My mother has passed on, I have not had another “possession” experience, and I think the fact that I am the only college graduate in my family proves the doctors’ concerns about my ability to function in “normal” society to be at least somewhat hysterical. Faith in God has settled all of this. Faith in God has really settled what could have been a very miserable life, and it is ONLY God who is with me now and always (as long as I do not wilfully reject Him, of course), with the same transforming, liberating, protecting, cleansing power He has exercised over me since day one.

From my perspective it is a much more sensible question to ask how I could NOT have faith in God, given all of the above. But I would not be able to reply to that question at all. I have no idea what the answer would look like. 🤷
 
Has this thread been moved? I could have swore that this thread was in the Non-Catholic religions forum and the Traditional Catholic forum. I posted the same answer in both, and now my answer has appeared twice in this thread. I know I didn’t double post in one thread.
 
Thank you for this thread. The post are inspiring and magnificent! I have to admit that I questioned the OP’s motives at first, but I guess that comes from my own experience of gaining faith through my own self inflicted adversity of my youth. Faith was my only way out. It is my understanding that the opposite of faith is fear. Fear is not an option for me. Faith is the only way. My faith grows stronger every year. God bless.
 
bpbasilphx said:
To put it another way, why do you believe?
Click to expand...
Because he has regenerated me so I may believe. Honestly, I think my believing is not really a choice. I don’t think anyone believing is. Choosing to follow certainly is. But believing, if you thinking about it, is not really a choice at all. Either you do or you do not. Faith is a gift and since not everyone has it I am inclined to believe it is imparted by God. This is probably why I do believe in some form of predestination.

All I know is that I am greatly to God that He has ordained that I be born in a time and place where I did hear and believe and that I was baptized into our Lord. But as to why I believe? That is really a question for God.

Intellectually I believe because I know it is true. I know Christ is our Lord because He answers the true questions no other belief system does. How can I be forgiven of my sins? What is the meaning of life? Only Christ makes sense as an answer to either question. No man could make that story up. I cannot say the same for any other religion or atheism.

But really I believe because the Holy Spirit has quickened my Spirit to see Him for who He is. Rich mercy so undeserved!
 
I think He more revealed it too me than me discovering it, it was nothing physically supernatural but my conversion happened in my mind and was not intellectual at all like how some people discover the Faith through studying, I really think it was the prayers of my ancestors in Heaven that caused God to reveal Himself too me.

Like another poster said, I just do… I didn’t before but now I do believe.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top