2:135 – My Heart Hurts, My God Answers

#faithbites #faithjourney heart

My heart hurts tonight. I have beliefs. My religion has beliefs. My denomination has beliefs. I have faith in Jesus Christ.

There are times like tonight, when my personal, religion, and denomination beliefs don’t align. I try to rely on my faith to carry me through.

There are times when I see major inconsistency in how my religion treats various sins. There are some things I don’t believe are sins but are treated as such.

In Christianity, there is the Gospel and the Law. The Gospel is love, salvation, and understanding. The Law is how we should behave. I am most knowledgeable about the Gospel and much less about the Law. I also know that you can accept people for who they are and not approve of their behavior.

Tonight, I am wrestling with my belief, my religions beliefs, my denomination and what my faith tells me.

Scripture

• “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” – James 1:2-4
• Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. – Psalm 119:18

Reflection

I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. I believe in the triune God. These are not questions in my mind. As we see in James, this questioning and wrestling with faith is a good thing. The perseverance is what we are looking for. I hope that someway I come to terms with this separation between my belief, my religion, and my denomination on how we understand sinners, including ourselves, and why we are so against some sins but not as much against others.

I am a young Christian and the words of the Psalm help me. The Lord has given us the Law And the Gospel in his inspired words, we need his strength to open our eyes on to the truth

While there are lots of I’m in this, I believe many can relate to this. The struggle is real. The world, our own thoughts, make following Christ difficult. But when we have true faith, we can understand a bit better.

Charge

How do you handle personal disagreements with your religion or your denomination? Does it cause you to find another room in God’s house? Does it inspired you to deepen your #faithjourney? Take time to reflect on these differences and draw up ideas on how to learn about them

Prayer

Lord, tonight my hear aches. Many of your children have conflicts between faith, religion, denomination, and personal beliefs. Help us to continue our faith journey with a balance of Gospel and Law. Calm and sooth our hearts with your love. Provide us mentors and direction as we persevere and learn. In your name, Amen