Questions about God and Faith

In Merelyme's blog yesterday, she is curious how other bloggers believe and I gave my answer. Her questions the most common questions we all faced over the years. I thought I share this with my readers. A writer of the Book of Hebrews wrote about faith: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1-2). Faith comes as a result of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit-He quickens our hearts to believe. Christian faith is not optimism because it breeds false hope. I believe a Christian should not be either pessimistic or optimistic. If a Christian thinks of their future that caused them to fall back on unreasoning hope from a "human point of view". I love this quote from an old TV show, "I always admired atheists. I think it takes a lot of faith." Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Seoul Mates, 1991.

1. Do you believe there is a God? Yes, I believe in God who created me as well as saved me.

2. Do you believe there is a heaven? Yes, I do. Christ through His death and resurrection, every legal hindrance has been met and satisfied. There is nothing that can keep me from the promise. Hebrews 9:15 "For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant."

3. Do you believe there is a hell? Yes, I do. I believe that without Christ through the Holy Spirit, we are nothing except worthy of going through the WIDE GATE of hell because of sins we have inherited from Adam. The very first "sinner" that went to hell was Lucifer (now Satan) and in my view, Lucifer (Satan) is the grandfather of sins.

4. Do you meditate or pray? Majority of my prayers are through my heart and mind than my mouth. Humility is putting God first in our prayers while pride is putting God last in our prayers. To me, all prayers are formal coming from my heart. There is "NO" wrong way to pray since prayer is spiritual from the heart. That's between God and the believer who worship. Jeremiah 17:10 "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." One thing we have to remember is that prayer basically means “transferring my “will” to God’s will”.

5. What belief most sustains you...helps you through challenging times? This is one of my main topics in my blog. God has given me His grace to cope with my sufferings through the sources of "thorns" which are weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions and difficulties in this life. God's providences in my life were my "wake-up calls" as well as making me a better Christian. I realized that when I am trying to understand why He is doing this, my life is more peaceful and more enjoyable. Even though God will not take away my problems but He always been there for me when I am facing problems.