Is my faith only a figment of my imagination?

[Blaise N]

Hi everyone

I wanted to reach out today and ask something that’s giving me anxiety.Now I as a believer,am having a struggle.I had a thought come by that stated “what if all my desires for God,my prayers to him,and my conviction of his existence is all apart of my imagination,IOW,is it you just manifesting faith so that you have faith?” And it’s worrisome,I have conviction,regardless of how I feel,to pray to Jesus always like he’s there.Can someone offer advice

 

[ripple the car]

Sure, Blaise. Your faith is not made-up. It’s real. You really trust Him, you really believe in Him, and that faith and trust is real. We can’t see faith with our eyes, but we exercise faith by praying, trusting Christ, and calling on Him. You are doing these things, so you’re good!

 

[tdidymas]

Hi everyone

I wanted to reach out today and ask something that’s giving me anxiety.Now I as a believer,am having a struggle.I had a thought come by that stated “what if all my desires for God,my prayers to him,and my conviction of his existence is all apart of my imagination,IOW,is it you just manifesting faith so that you have faith?” And it’s worrisome,I have conviction,regardless of how I feel,to pray to Jesus always like he’s there.Can someone offer advice

Was it a mere passing thought, or is it a real persistent doubt?

Don't have faith in your faith. Instead, trust Christ and His work, and be persistent at it. Read and study the Bible according to 2 Tim. 2:15, 3:16-17, and Heb. 4:12. You have to be in it for the long haul, because the Christian life is a journey.

When I was a young Christian, I began to doubt the reality of it all, even if God existed. It was because in my past, I had set up mental strongholds against Christianity, and those ideas were being used against me by some unseen enemy. But each year I have seen noticeable spiritual progress in my life, and sometimes I experienced God powerfully. We are in a spiritual war (Eph. 6:10-18).

I hope this is an encouragement to you in your personal battles.

 

[Blaise N]

Was it a mere passing thought, or is it a real persistent doubt?

Don't have faith in your faith. Instead, trust Christ and His work, and be persistent at it. Read and study the Bible according to 2 Tim. 2:15, 3:16-17, and Heb. 4:12. You have to be in it for the long haul, because the Christian life is a journey.

When I was a young Christian, I began to doubt the reality of it all, even if God existed. It was because in my past, I had set up mental strongholds against Christianity, and those ideas were being used against me by some unseen enemy. But each year I have seen noticeable spiritual progress in my life, and sometimes I experienced God powerfully. We are in a spiritual war (Eph. 6:10-18).

I hope this is an encouragement to you in your personal battles.

It’s both

 

[Blaise N]

Sure, Blaise. Your faith is not made-up. It’s real. You really trust Him, you really believe in Him, and that faith and trust is real. We can’t see faith with our eyes, but we exercise faith by praying, trusting Christ, and calling on Him. You are doing these things, so you’re good!

Thank you,it’s just that some of the stories in the Bible are hard to grasp,like Adam and Eve,the new earth,the flood,etc and I want to embrace them.

 

[ripple the car]

Thank you,it’s just that some of the stories in the Bible are hard to grasp,like Adam and Eve,the new earth,the flood,etc and I want to embrace them.

Take it one thing at a time. Pray about it, then let it go. Let Christ work on your heart, mind, and thoughts. Faith will come.

Fwiw, I think a global Flood does a way better job of explaining rock formations, geology, and the fossil record than “billions on years plus pressure”, which makes no sense to me. So, I stick with that.

Adam and Eve makes sense, too; we’re the only life forms foolish, thankless, and stubborn enough to disobey God from the word “go” by eating something we didn’t need to eat, after being told not to.

 

[childeye 2]

Hi everyone

I wanted to reach out today and ask something that’s giving me anxiety.Now I as a believer,am having a struggle.I had a thought come by that stated “what if all my desires for God,my prayers to him,and my conviction of his existence is all apart of my imagination,IOW,is it you just manifesting faith so that you have faith?” And it’s worrisome,I have conviction,regardless of how I feel,to pray to Jesus always like he’s there.Can someone offer advice

Respectfully, the reasoning of the thought which fosters an anxiety is based upon a misrepresentation of the term "faith' and/or "belief". The term believe/trust in, has a different meaning than the term believe/exists (in the sense that God exists). Faith means 'trust' in God, wherefore God must first exist before you can proceed to trust or distrust in Him. Faith/trust comes from hearing the Word of God and recognizing it as good. This happens in both our hearts and minds, but I don't see how unconditional love could ever manifest in the imagination of the mind.

 

[grampster]

I'm 78 and have been saved since around age 40. Like many my journey has not been easy with many stumbles and doubts. Even when I am engaged in daily prayer, I feel the subtle influence of the evil one who tries to take my mind off my prayers...which is when I ask the Lord to give me His peace and I feel His power to do so.

When I think about the fantastic things I read about in the bible that seem so stupendous I recall what the Father said of Himself; My ways are not your ways, My thoughts are not your thoughts and that to Him a day is like a thousand years. (key word there is like. It puts a figurative human perspective on what time is from our God who lives outside time and in fact actually created it.) Also the Book of Job is interesting as to God's reply to Job and his friends as to His power. Jesus also said in John 29 "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed. So trust in your faith and in the Word.

 

[childeye 2]

Thank you,it’s just that some of the stories in the Bible are hard to grasp,like Adam and Eve,the new earth,the flood,etc and I want to embrace them.

Fundamentally, keeping the faith is 'trusting' that unconditional Love is the Eternal Spirit. That is the challenge presented to us when persevering in this corrupt world which manifests a dog eat dog/ do it to them before they do it to you mentality.

 

[TheWhat?]

Depends on who you ask Blaise. I'm an empiricist, and my brand of empiricism is effectively simple. You wrote a few days ago that you had an experience where you were heartbroken over saying something about God. Not that you should repeat that experience, but it is an experience, and, in my view, the only real basis for anything we can call knowledge. Now if you go read up in scripture about related subjects, about believing with the heart, etc, your faith will be reinforced through the experiences of others who share a common understanding.

 

[Mark Quayle]

Hi everyone

I wanted to reach out today and ask something that’s giving me anxiety.Now I as a believer,am having a struggle.I had a thought come by that stated “what if all my desires for God,my prayers to him,and my conviction of his existence is all apart of my imagination,IOW,is it you just manifesting faith so that you have faith?” And it’s worrisome,I have conviction,regardless of how I feel,to pray to Jesus always like he’s there.Can someone offer advice

There is a common theme in all your threads, and I don't know how to put it, though I've tried from the beginning. tdidymas mentioned it and childeye 2 touched on it tangentially. Almost all those who answered also mentioned the importance of prayer and Scripture.

Don't have faith in your faith. Instead, trust Christ and His work

I don't see how unconditional love could ever manifest in the imagination of the mind.

I will try here to say it plainly, though I don't know how: ONLY GOD knows what is going on here on this planet. He is not only the one who has a handle on everything but he is the one who is doing it from the beginning.

Think of this notion, just to orient yourself: What if you are only an imagination of God's?! God is that much more real, more actual, than we are. (I'm not at all saying we aren't real, but we do not exist on the level he alone occupies.) THAT GOD is the one who made us for his own purposes. THAT GOD is the one who works all things for our good. THAT GOD is the one who provides the faith, motivates us, judges all things and is accomplishing what he set out to do. HE WILL COMPLETE IT —YOU CANNOT DO THIS— ONLY HE CAN.

So your faith is not even yours, though it is inside you. It does not depend on you, your sincerity, your obedience, or anything else you do or think, for it to be real.

Yes, you can squelch it, ignore it, even sin against it, but you can not even stamp it out, if God has put it inside you.

A little theology here: It is the Spirit of God indwelling you that does this. There's no need, nor purpose, nor effect, in doubting yourself concerning the validity of your faith. It is not your job. You are wasting your time and energy worrying about it.

(For those who might raise objections to this, notice, I did not say we can't add to it, do what 'grows' it, etc. But the reality, the actuality, of it, is not ours to do, to cause.)

 

[Petros2015]

And it’s worrisome,I have conviction,regardless of how I feel,to pray to Jesus always like he’s there.Can someone offer advice

Often we ask questions/make prayers like "are you there?" "show me you are there" etc
The most powerful answers I have gotten have been to questions made in desperation
(not that I think He ever required desperation, I used to think that He did, and this just made me angry with Him). But when I really and truly asked things like "what is wrong with me?" (and I used considerably stronger language at the time btw), I actually felt an answer. And it was an honest, truthful, wise answer that was not condemning. A few other times I have asked things like this.

For me, the best moments have been when I have asked questions about things in life that were really confusing to me, or I needed to know. A question is interesting, because a) it acknowledges that we don't know or don't understand and b) it doesn't challenge the existence of the thing you are asking the question of. It's not: "prove that you exist by answering this question" It is: "you exist, this is confusing and causing me pain, will you answer this question for me?"

Sometimes the best question for me is "I am thinking this way, but I don't think it is right - can you show me the difference between your thinking and your will and mine? Can I get a second opinion from you against the one in my head, which I am pretty sure is not right?

It all boils down to:

Can you show me the difference between You and Me?

And in doing so (which He has done for me), God is revealed.

A lot of people will say "read the Bible! the answers are all in there!"
Well, yes. But I've read the Bible. And BECAUSE I've read the Bible, I want to talk to the Author.

Which is better, a class with a textbook and no teacher?
Or a class with a textbook, and a teacher, who, if the student admits at the end of the class
That he is failing the tests
And doesn't understand some things
Will say 'stay a minute'
After the other students have left
'Come to the black board here'
'And let me explain'
Both the teacher and the student are glad of this I think
(I know that I have been)
And that is what I've found

 

[ViaCrucis]

Hi everyone

I wanted to reach out today and ask something that’s giving me anxiety.Now I as a believer,am having a struggle.I had a thought come by that stated “what if all my desires for God,my prayers to him,and my conviction of his existence is all apart of my imagination,IOW,is it you just manifesting faith so that you have faith?” And it’s worrisome,I have conviction,regardless of how I feel,to pray to Jesus always like he’s there.Can someone offer advice

If you lacked faith then you wouldn't even be here asking these questions. A person without faith doesn't care if they have faith or not.

The fact that you are having an existential crisis of faith is itself evidence of your faith.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[childeye 2]

childeye 2 said: ↑
I don't see how unconditional love could ever manifest in the imagination of the mind.

I will try here to say it plainly, though I don't know how: ONLY GOD knows what is going on here on this planet. He is not only the one who has a handle on everything but he is the one who is doing it from the beginning.

Think of this notion, just to orient yourself: What if you are only an imagination of God's?! God is that much more real, more actual, than we are. (I'm not at all saying we aren't real, but we do not exist on the level he alone occupies.) THAT GOD is the one who made us for his own purposes. THAT GOD is the one who works all things for our good. THAT GOD is the one who provides the faith, motivates us, judges all things and is accomplishing what he set out to do. HE WILL COMPLETE IT —YOU CANNOT DO THIS— ONLY HE CAN.

So your faith is not even yours, though it is inside you. It does not depend on you, your sincerity, your obedience, or anything else you do or think, for it to be real.

Yes, you can squelch it, ignore it, even sin against it, but you can not even stamp it out, if God has put it inside you.

A little theology here: It is the Spirit of God indwelling you that does this. There's no need, nor purpose, nor effect, in doubting yourself concerning the validity of your faith. It is not your job. You are wasting your time and energy worrying about it.

(For those who might raise objections to this, notice, I did not say we can't add to it, do what 'grows' it, etc. But the reality, the actuality, of it, is not ours to do, to cause.)

Thanks for the good read. I believe that God imagined us before He spoke forth the creation and also that His Word will accomplish all that He said.

Your theology is fundamentally sound in the sense that God/Creator existed before the creation in any reasonable application of the term "God".

So that when reasoning upon God as a precept, it dictates to the course of logic that whatever defines the good, and also how we are enabled to perceive it as such, is attributable to the Creator. Whatever is given to be perceived as goodness would dictate how we perceive hope since it's a positive denotation. Our Creator wanted us to experience Love, hope and faith.

I believe that for faith to be Faith, it must be pointed at what qualifies our hope as we struggle in a perverse world. And that all sane people would hope that the goodness in others which we depend upon when we come into this world, will prevail in us throughout our lives for the sake of those who come after us. That it must come from somewhere and that it is not of ourselves, is an axiom and a fundamental matter of theism. Therefore I say that I don't see how unconditional Love could be invented by mankind, anymore than the compassion that mourns and sheds tears could be. So God is there, in my view, even as I can perceive Love and know what is hope and what is faith.

 

[Elfkind]

Hi everyone

I wanted to reach out today and ask something that’s giving me anxiety.Now I as a believer,am having a struggle.I had a thought come by that stated “what if all my desires for God,my prayers to him,and my conviction of his existence is all apart of my imagination,IOW,is it you just manifesting faith so that you have faith?” And it’s worrisome,I have conviction,regardless of how I feel,to pray to Jesus always like he’s there.Can someone offer advice

The whole reason I became Christian to start of with, was because I, as a practicing Buddhist thought I should study Christianity closer and see if there's anything in it that would make me think that it's not just another phenomena of the mind, that come and go, and make up moments of my mind. Because I realized that I didn't project or manifest or imagine the Spirit of Christ that came over me when reading the new testament and calling on the name of Jesus, but that Jesus is a living God, not working according to my will, but often contrary to it, and is as a light inside me where there used to be darkness. And I realized it was true what is written in Romans, about how the Law is written on our heart, by observing my thoughts accusing or accepting thoughts and acts and words I've done during life.

It's like Jesus is a light-bulb and my soul had an empty socket. I believe Jesus is true, because of how my heart confess that He is the living God.