This episode is part of my podcast series DEAR ATHEIST… If you prefer, LISTEN NOW.
*****
You have a problem. You have an addiction. The thing you crave so much has blinded you to what you need. You crave to know. You feed on much knowledge, but are never content, because the more you know, the less you know.
This drug that gives you a momentary high, and causes you restlessness, is a disease to your bones. Knowledge is good, but Wisdom is better. Seek after Wisdom, and you shall receive knowledge and understanding.
You’ve been looking into those Scriptures long and hard. You think your diligence and persistence is evidence of your sincerity. But your pride, which you do not see, has blinded you. You know too much, and cannot learn the truth. No one pours new wine in old wine skins.
You need to stop. Just stop. Stop trying so hard to know. Stop and listen. Wait.
In your longing for the truth, wait. Wait in expectation. Wait, and believe that there is a Truth to know. Don’t start thinking about what it is. Just free your mind.
Expel all that you think you know. Abide in that place of foolishness. Yes, be in that place of uncertainty. Stay there and smash your pride. Admit that you do not know. But believe that the Truth will be revealed. For all who seek shall find, and to those who knock, the door shall be opened.
Wait. Resist the temptation to stop waiting because of the shame. Empty yourself of all expectation, except the revelation of God.
Yes, admit the truth to yourself. You are not an atheist. Not when you are searching for God. It might be shameful to realise that you have believed all along… You just don’t know WHO you believe in. You don’t know WHO to trust.
But He is the One who reveals Himself. And only to the humble. The broken. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They meet Him in that place of waiting.
So wait. When you know the Truth, it doesn’t matter what anybody else says. You know it for yourself. You can rest in the revelation of God, because when He reveals Himself, none can deny the truth. You will know that He is, just as you know that you are.
How long should you wait, you might wonder. How long is eternity? Eternity is not measured in time. That is where God abides. It is not about the length of your waiting, but the quality of your expectation, of your hungering and thirsting.
Wait…even past the point where everyone has moved on, and it seems you are the only one stuck…waiting. Wait, even when you think you should just admit to yourself that this is the most foolish exercise ever. Wait, even when your friends laugh at you and tell you how foolish you are to be expectant of a God you once denied belief in.
Wait. Through the noise. Through the commotion. Through the anxiety. Through the grief. Through the pain. Through the foolishness. Through it all. Don’t stop waiting.
God will visit you, when all else has lost importance and knowing Him is all you desire. He will surely visit you. And you will know. And you will rejoice and you will be satisfied. And your life will NEVER be the same.
Wait for Him, my friend. Wait.
Photo credit: http://www.pixabay.com
If you liked this post, you might like YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN
Are you blessed by this ministry? Why not partner with me?
It's kind to share :)
Categories: Dear Atheist, Issues of Life, The Latest, True Religion
Grace and Truth 
We’ve waited thousands of years.
And still…..nothing.
LikeLike
Hi dear…
I sincerely doubt that YOU personally have waited thousands of years. You have not even lived 100. Wait…with the right Spirit. And just because you and the company you keep do not yet KNOW Him, don’t deny my experience and that of others by saying “we’ve waited thousands of years and still nothing”. In that thousands of years, many have come to KNOW, and so your statement is incorrect.
Like I said, “It is not about the length of your waiting, but the quality of your expectation, of your hungering and thirsting.”
Do it alone. Don’t wait with your group of unbelievers. Faith is very personal. In as much as you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will receive Wisdom, and know the Truth.
Sincerely, Ufuoma.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I haven’t got mixed up between ‘we’ve’ and ‘I’.
Who are ‘the company I keep’?
You write as though you know me better than I do.
Who are my group of unbelievers that you generalise about? Do tell.
LikeLike
The group I am referring to are those included in your statement “we’ve been waiting…” You spoke for them as well as yourself… and if your testimony is unbelief, then that ‘company’ of ‘we’ can only be one of unbelievers.
No, I don’t know you. I would be interested to. Please speak for yourself…alone. Own your experience. You were the one generalising.
Cheers, Ufuoma
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ufuoma, you should confine yourself to your fellow God seekers. None of what you say makes the slightest sense to us atheists. Basically, you sound out of your mind with this “He” God conjecture, just like all the other wordpress God squad, who are tiresome and objectionable in the extreme.
Keep smiling, though – that’s the best weapon you’ve got going for you.
LikeLike
I am certainly not dreaming that I will get them all… If the message wasn’t for you, it was for another ‘Atheist’. I appreciate your comment, and I will surely keep smiling.
Sincerely, Ufuoma.
LikeLike
Telling an atheist- that already admits that he/she doesn’t know- to ‘admit that you don’t know’ and then spend the rest of the post claiming to know yourself, is absurd.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Sam,
What makes it absurd? That I should know? That ANYONE could possibly know that God is real? Why is it absurd for you to contemplate for a minute that I might know something you don’t..? Doesn’t that confirm the pride I was talking about…? The inability to consider that a child might even know this truth that you cannot see?
God is not revealed by degrees or qualifications or achievements. He reveals Himself to the humble, and says that unless you become as little children, you cannot enter His Kingdom. All I was showing you to do was learning to forego your pride and wait in humility. And your response is that it is absurd for me to claim to know, while you admit that you don’t! That is incredulous!
Also… Atheism, that I am aware of, always claims to know that “there is no God”. They boldly profess that He does not exist. It is Agnostics who admit that they don’t know. So if you already admit that, then this post is not addressed to you.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Sincerely, Ufuoma.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Atheism doesn’t state that there is no God, it’s simply a lack of belief in a God until there is sufficient evidence. No atheist should say there is 100% no God.
I believe that you feel God has spoken to you, however I doubt the evidence in support of that is reasonable. How did God reveal himself to you?
LikeLike
Hi Sam,
It’s so tempting to answer your question “How did God reveal himself to you?”, but I suspect that the answer will not help you at all. Just as the Bible doesn’t help you to believe in God. It isn’t the evidence that is the problem, it is you who refuses to see and accept what is plain to see.
I have shown you the way to invite the revelation of God. I can’t make you do it. I don’t even know if you read this post with a heart that is hungry for the truth, or you read it with skepticism. You can’t fake faith, and you can’t fake sincerity. And I can’t deny what I know, because you do not know it too.
I do wish you the best…
Sincerely, Ufuoma.
LikeLike
Bur what is plain to see? I’m happy to accept the truth if there is sufficient evidence. I just need to know what is plain to see that is direct evidence of God?
LikeLike
No, this is the old game of every Atheist. I am past falling for it. Sincerity calls for getting to know the truth for yourself, and doing whatever it takes… If your current method if working for you, by all means ignore me. But if you are hungering for more, why not try what I’ve suggested. You’ve got much more to gain, and what you stand to lose (your pride, status, prior knowledge etc) is really not as valuable as you think…
Choi!
LikeLiked by 1 person
And this is why religion is a burden to society. You have no evidence to present me! Was it the wind blowing through your hair one day whilst you were thinking about God? Did you pray for a rainy day that came? I can guarantee whatever little evidence you have, every other religion is having the same experience with their God. And if that evidence is vague enough to attach to any religion, it isn’t really evidence.
LikeLike
That’s funny… You can neither validate nor invalidate my claim to faith by your musings… The only way anyone can truly know there is a God and WHO He is, is by personal revelation and conviction. THAT’S WHAT YOU NEED.
I can’t give that to you. No evidence will suffice to the one who is spiritually blind! What evidence can you give a blind man for the existence of the colour green? You must first give him sight…and only God can do that for you, my dear.
It is also safe to say, you can’t take away my SIGHT. Nor can you make the colour green cease from existence. You just have to own your experience.
Sincerely, Ufuoma.
LikeLike
I was in your boat growing up, I just realised that the evidence presented wasn’t sufficient, and that what I wanted to be true was a stronger desire than what is true. I do hope one day you stop settling for bad evidence and embrace a world that may not be as you want it, but one that you are seeing with honesty and open mindedness. If a God- the creator of the whole universe and capable of anything- existed, we would know. To reach to the humble in the way you say is a very bad way to gain followers. He needs a new tactic.
LikeLike
WE DO KNOW. It is just unfortunate that you are not one of the WE at the moment.
But one day, you will KNOW just as you are known by Him, and you will confess that you KNEW all along.
LikeLike
You are claiming that you know my mind better than I do, which is pretty offensive. And whilst I admire the fact you have a foundation that helps children, I find it deplorable that you are willing to worship a God that keeps children in that condition. If God created such a world, or doesn’t want to change it, wouldn’t he be offended if you take that role into your own hands? Aren’t you playing the role of God?
LikeLike
Perhaps you should read my post: THE POOR YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE WITH YOU.
It is safe to say that our conversation here has reached its peak of diplomacy. I see your anger and hatred, and well…it’s not going to help either of us.
I hope your day is blessed.
Sincerely, Ufuoma.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So let me get this straight. The problem is that people want to know rather than just taking someone’s word for it? Or am I missing the point?
LikeLike
No, a desire to know is not and has never been the problem. As you read on, this desire is maintained and achieved, as God reveals Himself. I am not asking you to take my word for anything…only that you should wait on God to reveal Himself.
The problem to me is an addiction to knowledge…and like any addiction, the substance stops being beneficial…when you feed on it excessively. And there are other types of knowledge that you ought to feed on, but you do not… So you’re actually malnourished and stuffed with your much knowledge, like a glutton is stuffed on burgers!
LikeLike
So we should not want to know outside of what God reveals? Would that be accurate?
LikeLike
No, it wouldn’t be accurate. Try another stab of guessing what I mean. I really thought it was clear…
LikeLike
How about, as the one trying to communicate clearly, you taking another ‘stab’ at clarifying for me, your reader who you are trying to communicate to?
LikeLike
Hi KIA,
You and I have had enough back and forth discussions on this…and your last stance, if I remember correctly, is that you are NOT an Atheist. So you are not in my target group…
Sincerely, Ufuoma.
LikeLike
So I guess you are declining to clarify?
LikeLike
I am declining to engage you in this topic AGAIN, especially as you deny being an Atheist.
Really, there’s no point, and there’s more fish in the sea. I would rather save and expend my energy on them.
I know also that the one to whom this message is for will not need clarification.
Sincerely, Ufuoma
LikeLike
LOL. It was a clever arguement in the beginning, but you changed to fast. There is nothing wrong with the quest for scientific knowledge which many of us prefer to supernatural stories and myths. You talk about knowing God. We talk about knowing ourselves better. Have a good night.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Same to you 🙂
LikeLike
Ironically, it was precisely this exercise which brought me to atheism after 28 years of devout Christianity.
LikeLike
Interesting…
LikeLike
ufuomaee, you say, “And there are other types of knowledge that you ought to feed on, but you do not…”
Other types of knowledge?
OED: knowledge noun
1. facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject
2. awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.
Whatever it is you’re feeding on is not fact-based but faith-based and so it’s not knowledge. It’s something else. I think it’s make-believe.
Your faith-based beliefs are NOT a different kind of knowledge, NOT some other type of knowledge, NOT some version of knowledge; your faith-based belief in the ‘right’ kind of knowledge is absent of knowledge. It is bereft of knowledge. It is empty of knowledge. If you possessed knowledge, you could show it, demonstrate it, reveal it, independent of your beliefs. You cannot do so and that’s why you require faith. Not knowledge. Faith… which is not a synonym for knowledge as you falsely present here.
That’s why you have no facts to support your claims. And this absence of facts has nothing to do with atheists who you demand go along with your claims of ‘knowing’ when you don’t. You don’t know. You believe. You’ve mixed up your terms. And you’ve done it intentionally to make wiggle room for your faith-based beliefs to be presented as something they are not At the very least, you are abusing the language and at worst lying. But without a doubt you are relying on misrepresentation for this letter’s thesis. That’s a clue about its truth value…
LikeLike
We can argue til Kingdom come that knowledge of the Spiritual, which I consider greater than any other knowledge and primary in gaining understanding and wisdom, is not indeed knowledge. Truly, there is no point.
Your ‘vast’ knowledge, and knowledge of the definition of knowledge as provided by Google, has led you to believe that you do not ‘feed’ on knowledge, How very wise of you. I think your understanding of what makes for knowledge is very limited.
But it’s okay. No need to argue the point. Thanks for sharing your perspective.
Cheers!
LikeLike
What is “the Spiritual?” Well, it’s whatever you want it to mean. It’s a term empty of meaning until you fill it in, and so claiming to have ‘knowledge’ about it – that is to say, facts independent of your belief – is just another dishonest word game you use to support your claim to have ‘other kinds of knowledge’. But the fact is you don’t. You have faith. Faith and knowledge are not synonyms. That’s not an arguable point. You dismissing it as such is, in fact, dishonest!
You continue to misrepresent ‘knowledge’, Ufomaee, and you do it intentionally to pretend the information you think you have about your god is based on facts independent of your beliefs. They’re not independent whatsoever. They are fully dependent on just you, what you bring to define these common terms. What you think you know, you do not know. You simply believe whatever you want to believe and then try to sell it under false pretenses as the right kind of ‘knowledge’. It is no such thing. All you’re doing is peddling your faith-based beliefs and misrepresenting them to be something other than what they are. This is very dishonest of you, Ufomaee, and we see you.
Although you may have fooled yourself to think you have knowledge atheists don’t to the applause of other believers who think your motivation for such a letter is virtuous because it’s pious, you have not fooled atheists who see through your dishonest tactics and then magnanimously point them out to you… to help you regain your lost or misplaced sense of honesty.
You don’t have to thank us; we do it out of the goodness of our collective hearts… and respect for knowledge about the real world.
Virtue lies in being motivated and respectful of honesty, Ufomaee, and not in the supposed object of a faith-based belief that motivates you to be dishonest. And atheists do like to stick to virtue rather than delve into the dishonesty required to misrepresent faith-based beliefs to be knowledge about the real world. It’s not. That’s why faith-based beliefs are so radically different and produce no applications, therapies, or technologies that work. Faith-based beliefs are empty of knowledge value because they are fact-less. They are full to the brim of a faith you import to your claims and then try to impose on the world as if true about it. They’re not. And you have no means to show any differently. We don’t buy your faith-based beliefs… unless you can show facts to independently support them. You can’t, so your faith-based beliefs that contain no knowledge is equivalent to snake oil and make believe. That, and not some reticence/anger/whatever by atheists against some god, is the reason we don’t believe YOU. You’ve given us no cause but you have demonstrated a willingness to be dishonest, to misrepresent important words, to pretend to know stuff you don’t know. That’s not an auspicious way to present yourself as a virtuous ‘witness’ to the claims you make.
You’re welcome.
LikeLike
That remains my position. Have a great day!
LikeLike
Yup, and it’s all in your head.
LikeLike
I always enjoy when Christians advocate ignorance. That, and fear, is all you have to support your nonsense.
Happily, I stopped waiting and realized that all the claims of “wait” were excuses and nothing more than victim blaming to excuse a god that does nothing.
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing your perspective.
LikeLike
This is such an important message. Many atheists come to the bible with so much skepticism that they do not end up seeing the sense in it. Some people feel hurt by the religion, the church, or feel that God did not show up at a time when they needed, so they became atheists. Some people think because there is evil in the world, then God does not exist (whereas, God never promised us an evil-free world, although his promises imply that he is an evil-free God)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! I appreciate your contribution. Blessings, Ufuoma
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are most welcome
LikeLiked by 1 person
Rather than presume you know why atheists do not believe in your version of some god, perhaps someday you will have the humility to actually listen. On that day you will realize the incredible hubris you have brought to bear and so might realize the scope of your error has been entirely self-inflicted.
The vast majority of atheists do not believe for one simple reason: there are no good reasons to believe.
You are also quite mistaken to think atheists have not taken your belief claims very seriously and investigated them. I know of very few atheists who are not much more familiar with the various bibles than a typical believer and studies bear this out. I, for example, have had to write senior thesis level academic papers that compare and contrast various sections from various bibles. This naturally caused me to read them to find these differences and then find commentary from all kind of theological schools by well respected scholars throughout history to discuss the various ways these difference splay out in schools of theology! Yet my major was not religious studies so why can talk to every door-knocking evangelical certain in their interpretations who are absolutely clueless about the bible they are holding, what it says, and how it has been interpreted differently over time by some very great minds? Why is it that I know this and they do not? It seem the difference is that I do not start with assuming I have some special divine access to justify the certainty of my religious beliefs (which has to rank as the highest form of hubris) but humility singularly lacking by so many religious proponents. My non belief is a well earned highly substantiate conclusion and not an indoctrination to believe first and then try to make incompatible reality comport to my inherited religious beliefs. In other words, I own my conclusion to not believe not because of personal opinion but because it’s truly ludicrous to think the bible is a coherent text about anything. It’s not; it’s a compilation of incompatible claims. And that is demonstrable in literally hundreds of ways… for those who actually READ the bible. Most atheists I know have done just that and come to the same conclusion.
So if you want to blame something or someone for the decline of religious belief in the tenets of Christianity, blame the bible. There is no greater source for atheism.
LikeLike
Thanks Tildeb. I appreciate your contribution. The essential ingredient I believe you lack is faith, and it’s not something I can give you… This post was my attempt to help you discover it, because it is discoverable. Like I acknowledged in this post, your search for knowledge is commendable, but all your reading won’t help without faith. It’s like one of those paintings where the image is hidden to those who look too closely. But step back, at the right angle, it becomes clear what was painted.
I really do hope you will step back enough to get the right perspective.
Blessings, Ufuoma
LikeLike
You’ve just substituted the term ‘faith’ for ‘belief’. This is a distinction without a difference. You are presenting ‘faith’ and/or ‘belief’ as a prerequisite to have faith, to have belief!
Come on.
I suspect what you mean is that you presume it is somehow virtuous to have a willingness to believe and that this is a virtuous thing, as if to grant the benefit of a doubt is what is missing from the atheist. This is not true.
I grant my favourite sports team exactly this trust and unhindered confidence and infuse it with a great deal of belief… at the beginning of the season. But, unlike a religious believer exercising this willingness to believe, I allow reality to then arbitrate this belief. YUou classify this arbitration as if a vice, as if it is ‘study’ that somehow takes away the virtue of the belief. No, it either increases or decreased the confidence that the belief is true, is warranted, is justified.
You are trying to suggest that this willingness to alter confidence by reality’s arbitration of some imposed belief this is some kind of lack, some kind of inherent inability, by atheists to believe in your god. Au contraire; it reveals the depth of deception and rejection of arbitration of inherited and borrowed beliefs by religious believers who cover up their certainty not with justification but with doubling down in their belief, their faith, in spite of reality’s arbitration of these. This is not a virtue in any other subject, in any other avenue of life, in any other pursuit if – and it’s a BIG if – understanding is the goal, if respecting what’s true is the goal.
Your method is a guaranteed method to fool yourself because you have no made any room at all to discover if your certainty is misplaced. You will never know. You will never understand. You will simply continue to double down no matter how much confidence or certainty you think you have. It’s just the Gambler’s fallacy smothered in piety but it’s just as much a thinking error no matter how godly you try to make it.
LikeLike
“You are trying to suggest that this willingness to alter confidence by reality’s arbitration of some imposed belief this is some kind of lack, some kind off inherent inability, by atheists to believe in your god…’
Spot on.
I actually like chatting with you, I think you always express yourself intelligently. I understand what you’ve said and in some ways, I agree with your view point, that’s a crazy way to live…to think… But what you call crazy, is what we call FAITHFULNESS. Or what some regular folks might understand as loyalty. Usually, this loyalty and unconditional trust can be given or may be expected within families… But for the most part, in individualist societies, we no longer appreciate such loyalties. People speak ill of their families all the time now…
Well, back to religion… When WE (Christians) mess up, we doubt ourselves before we doubt God. Doubting God is like the end game…it’s like a death…like actually deciding to fall of a cliff. We would rather say we don’t know it all and we don’t know His reasons than to conclude that He is at fault in one way or He doesn’t exist.
That’s the burden, curse, and the blessing of the FAITHFUL, as the Bible refers to Believers.
We have plenty of examples in the Bible, which inspire us to be so long suffering. A classic example is JOSEPH. He had dreams of greatness, but he suffered so much that no sensible person would have remained believing in God. But Joseph did, and we see that in the end, despite and through it all, God made good of everything.
So, giving up faith is a choice we NEVER choose to make.
Now, having faith in the first place, I’m not so sure if that’s a choice we make. I believe we are CHOSEN.
Thanks for engaging me. I appreciate your perspective, and I do hope – as He has done to many before you – that you come to FAITH by His grace.
Blessings, Ufuoma.
LikeLike
Don’t you think it is… interesting… that being ‘chosen’ seems to correlate to an exceptional degree with geography and the parent’s religious beliefs? If you were born in Salt Lake City, you’d probably be a Mormon and have ‘faith’ that this was the one true religion because it honour’s the one true god. If you were born in, say, the Punjab, you’d probably be Sikh and have ‘faith’ that this is the one true religion because it honours the one true Wahaguru. If you were born in Mecca, I think we can absolutely guarantee you would believe Allah was the one true god and Mohamed the one true prophet. India and Hinduism, Southern China/Nepal with Buddhism, and so on.
Or I can believe some deity has reached across time and the cosmos and everything it contains to whisper in my ear because for some unknown reason I have been ‘chosen’. In fact, I must be very special to have this personal pipeline to the divine… but, to be clear, so does every other human… well, for the past 2000 years, anyway. Before that, well, they can all roast in some perpetual suffering for not being quite so special. This is why I say such a belief – presented with great humility, it goes without saying – is upon on examination towering hubris.
But when someone points out the lack of such ‘choosing’ for him or her, suddenly it becomes the fault of the ‘listener’ who must not be listening! There’s the hubris! The hubris to not hear this god or that one? It must be a hard heart, or some deep anger, or, or, or… because I know through faith that this must be the case! So I can appear pious if I tell such unfortunate souls that they need to open their hearts, open their ears, and allow this or that god’s presence to be felt.
That’s the con. It’s victim blaming because it’s easier to maintain the fiction of the divine pipeline to one’s private ear (and feel pretty special to have the attention of the omnipotent universe’s creator) than it is to take responsibility for one’s religious beliefs and show that it really is from somewhere ‘out there’ and delivered by this or that means, that some ‘choosing’ really did take place. Who wants to face the onus of justifying the belief as something other than a complete fiction created from ‘in here’ no matter how much hubris is needed and then relying only on the gullibility of those who also want to feel special and are told by such ‘guides to the divine’ that they must first reject any need for any compelling reasons or evidence.
That’s the conman’s wet dream.
LikeLike
Like I said, I understand and respect your perspective. Having so many different religions makes it harder for you to believe any.
But no matter the multitude of fakes, it doesn’t rule out an original. Each is free to believe that there is the one. And unfortunately, it does seem to be a location lottery…that’s why Christians are such adamant evangelists… We have been commissioned to break this location lottery and go into all the world making disciples.
That’s why I’m on here chatting you up.
I don’t care if they believe they are right, and they probably feel the same as me…and you don’t care about either of our beliefs. But I must still do what I believe is right.
Each to his own conscience.
Have a good night 🙂
LikeLike