But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6
When I was a boy, my parents sometimes brought me to a Lutheran church. It was big, had a cold stone floor, and boring music. I learned a little about God there. Mostly that He answers prayer, but other than that, He seemed rather boring. Since my parents were not really people of faith, we went to church on and off. I was left to decide for myself who God is and what He wants from me.
So I mostly forgot about Him. I was reminded one day, however, when studying the details of the religion of the Iroquois tribe in 8th grade social studies. (For some reason we only studied details of religions that are not Judeo-Christian.) They believed something about all of us living on the back of a turtle, which caused some laughter in the class. The teacher reprimanded us for that, and asked how do we know what we believe is true. That pretty much shut us all up.
Thanks to that teacher, I could not sleep at for several nights. I had a sudden serious fear of death. I prayed to God “whoever you are”, not knowing my prayer was in accordance with Hebrews 6:11 “for he who comes to God must believe that He is”. God responded with his part, “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
God sent someone who arrived two weeks later to tell me the Good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died a horrible death so I did not have to fear death any more. At age 14 I gave my life to Christ, and began my journey of faith.
While this may not be proof of God’s existence, it did prove to me that any religion or faith other than Biblical Christianity must be false. I gave God, whoever he was, an open door to my life. Buddha never showed up. Allah never sent anyone. Mary missed her cue. Just as in 1 Kings 18, no pagan god came to bring me any truth. Only Jesus heard my prayer. He sent his servant to tell me “You must be born again.”
Yes, absolutely! One Bible translation says that faith without corresponding actions is dead. My actions that will convince someone that there is or is not a God who cares about them. It is an awesome responsibility.
Nicely and succinctly stated. True, God’s existence cannot be proved. That is why we call it “faith.” But faith is more action than belief, which is why Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, has one verse of definition and thirty-nine verses of examples of people who lived out that faith. Faith is seen in our actions, not in our proclamations. As someone smarter than me once said, “Belief without action is only an opinion.”