Belief

Throughout my life,  I’ve been to many different churches and have experienced different “versions” of the christian religion. While the fundamental beliefs remained the same, I found a lot of ideological differences that lead me to question certain predetermined beliefs.

I remember listening to a man describe his understanding of a particular belief that was quite contradictory to what I’d previously been taught. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and so I became determined to prove him wrong. As a result during my research and in reading the bible (and much to my surprise), I discovered that a lot of what this man was saying, was true.

It was a pretty life-changing experience for me as it made me realize that so much of my relationship with the Lord was based on religion and what I’d been taught, as opposed to what I had to come believe on my own.

Since I had so many different perspectives in my head, I decided that I didn’t want to have any input from anybody else but the Bible. So I read. I read and I read and I read.

And through this process, I discovered what I truly believed.

This was a major turning point for me in my walk with the Lord. As someone who has experienced a strong legalistic perspective, reading the Bible blew me away. I found that God was much more loving, more compassionate, more forgiving and full of grace. I was overwhelmed by how much He really loves me. I started to realize that it wasn’t so much about going to church on Sunday, but rather how I showed love to people or gave of myself to others.  Not that I don’t see a place for church on Sunday, but I’ve realized that just because I went to church, it didn’t mean I was fulfilling my duties, it was more about the other 167 hours of the week too.

If you’ve never taken the time to read the Bible, to really test and dig deep to find out what you believe, then I cannot admonished you enough to do this. So many times we hear of a God of fire and brimstone, a God who judges us harshly and whom we have to fear (in an unhealthy way).

But that is not who I found.

I found a God who ate with the “sinners” of the day, and who focused on the hurting and the needy. A God who wasn’t concerned about stature or material things and who showed love and compassion to those whom society would deem unworthy of it. I found a God who loves so radically that He was willing to lay down His life for ME and for YOU. And most importantly…

I found unconditional love.

Everything changed for me when I did this and I hope that you will try this too. I recommend starting with the New Testament, and I hope that you’ll discover all of the freedom that I have found. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still sometimes wrestle with my legalistic roots, but this journey changed me. And now I have much more grace and compassion for myself and for others.