There is a big difference between these two words. I knowing something is true, for example car exhaust pollutes the atmosphere. It is proven it is a true fact. Believing that car exhaust is harmful, begins to change the way I live. I start driving less, I ride my bike places. Putting your beliefs in something changes the way you think, and behave. It changes your daily activities.
I know God loves me.
I know that Christ died for me.
For, those who grew up in the church we have all sung the children’s song, “Jesus Loves me.” This love does not stop at knowing that this is true. Believing in God’s love for us changes the way I view myself, and in turn changes how I act. It changes my daily behaviors.
Going from knowing to believing can be one of the hardest transitions.
When I was around twelve my brother bet me. I would be afraid everytime he would come home from school. My parents did not come to my defense.
Where my father failed me in showing that I am worth protecting, showing me he loved me, there became a hole.
Soon after this my friend invited me to First Priority, where I heard someone present the Gospel and I took Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I was also told that God was God the Father.
The truth is, if we had fathers that wronged us in some way they have ruined our idea of God the Father. If our father abused us, we think God the Father will abouse us. If our father was absent, God the Father is absent.
When we lack a father in our lives, boys stay boys into adulthood, girls seek our love, identity in all the wrong places.
When I began to see being noticed by boys I started seeking their “love,” their approval, their acceptance.
I had a person come up to me, when I was working, and tell me I had a nice body. I lied to my parents about seeing boys behind their backs. I lied to coaches, employers, to youth pastors and myself.
I did all of these things, and I was a believer, a born again Christian. I knew that God loved me, but I never believed it.
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