There are two different realities. One that is real and one that is a lie. No, I am not talking about the Matrix. Although that movie is a great analogy for it. The two realities I am speaking of deal with faith or fear, confidence or worry, a creation existing in the hands of God or a creation that is random and unstable.

I spent a large portion of my life seeing reality as unpredictable and dangerous. I devoted an unhealthy amount of time to trying to protect myself from dangers that never actually arrived. I tried to control every aspect of my life in a futile attempt of self-preservation only to enslave myself to fear. Fear that was so strong in my life that I could no longer act when I needed to or even speak when I had something to say. Sadly, this is how many people live their lives. Many Christians live this way also, although we are supposed to know better.

My life now is drastically different than it once was. I encountered God. I don’t just mean I became a Christian. I encountered Him in a way that made me finally realize God as an actual being and not just an idea that I believe in. I know most Christians would say they believe God to be real this way as well but because of my past experience as well as observing the lifestyles of other Christians its hard to believe all of them. It almost seems like Christians use the same terminology to express two different things. Allow me to explain.

God is real. God is present. And God is willing to speak to you. There is the biblical scriptures and then there is God Himself speaking to you in the here and now. But many Christians think and behave as if God only exists in their minds. He is not a real entity outside of themselves. He looks and acts the way they think He should. Example: If they have sinned or failed, God is unhappy. If everything is going well and they feel good, then God is happy with them. These people go to church every Sunday, read their bibles and pray all the time and call that relationship. They fail to see that all of that is just spiritual discipline. But God is real and acts as He will’s, not how others expect of him. There are Christians who have encountered God and walk in relationship with Him. Real relationship, the kind you have with another person. They speak and then wait for an answer. They don’t simply study the nature of God, they become intimately acquainted with it through experiencing His presence. Every Christian seems to live out one of two different realities. One where reality defines God, the other where God defines reality.

What does this have to do with reality? If God says something will be, then it will be. I won’t delve too deep into why that is, since I can do that in other articles. But suffice it to say that God is sovereign, all-powerful, all-knowing and always faithful. Put all those together and you get a God who cannot be stopped, cannot make mistakes and cannot fail in fulfilling what He sets out to do. If God says to a single man or woman that they will one day be married, then they will one day be married. If he says to a mother that her children will return to Him, then her children will return. No one can stop His words from coming true. If God says He loves you and nothing can separate you from that love then nothing will separate you from that love. Faith is when we receive His words and believe in them. And we show that we believe in them by how we act.

If the mother to whom God said “Your children will return to me” responds by worrying than she shows herself to doubt God and is living in the worldly reality. She lives as if it is up to her to save her children and somehow worrying is supposed to be the source of their salvation. This of course makes no sense, worry has no power to save. It’s the same with the single man/woman struggling with loneliness. God said they would be married yet they still succumb to the fear that they will be single the rest of their lives. Lack of success in relationships causes them to doubt. They devote all their time instead to fantasizing what it would be like to have what they think they will never obtain, causing themselves more heartache. Or they waste time trying to earn the favor of the opposite sex only to be denied. Or, worst of all, they try to convince themselves that maybe they are just meant to be celibate, as if that’s God’s plan for them when this is actually doubting His plan for them. Things would go better If they had just trusted the Lord in the first place and devoted their free time to their relationship with God and in so doing allowed Him to prepare them for their future relationship. And many a Christian knows the biblical verses about God’s love for them and sing about it and declare it over others. Yet they go through life downcast in their souls because they believe He must be angry with them for some sin they committed. They try to achieve perfection through religious discipline to earn His favor when they already had it.

“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32

Above I quoted John 8:32. What is interesting about this verse is that the Greek word being translated as “truth” is Aletheia, which also carries the meaning of “reality”. Truth and Reality are a person, Jesus. What He says, goes. “For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart Him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?” Isa 14:27 I know that learning how to live in the promises that God makes to us is difficult at first. Like Neo failing to make the jump in the Matrix when he was being trained. But the church must learn how to begin living as if what God says is reality. Not what the world throws at us. Not the fears and worries that crawl around in our heads, conjuring up images and ideas of what might happen. Christ spoke of the “Truth” setting us free. It was sin that we have been enslaved to that He wishes to set us free from. We have obeyed the voices of fear, worry, and anxiety our whole lives. Jesus, The Truth, sets us free by showing us the true way to live.

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” John 14:6

I don’t care if every circumstance in life points in the opposite direction of what God said is going to happen. You have to learn that what God said is more concrete then the circumstances around you. And that is hard, because we have all been raised in the world, in this false reality. But keep at it. Keep learning how to live with God as your source of what is true and real. Let God be the Way that you live. Let Him be your source of Life, not the world. For God determines what is real and possible, not doubt.

I personally have reached a place in my life where I have waited for years for promises to come true. I am not far from the fulfillment of some of them. And as the date of their fulfillment draws closer, it is becoming increasingly clear to me what the consequences are. If God doesn’t come through for me its not just a matter of saying I misheard Him. My life will be a mess. I will be devastated. Because I have put so much of myself and my life on the line, trusting in Him. However, I am not afraid. I have watched, just within the last few years, as things God has shown me become a reality before my eyes. I know that I will not be disappointed. Even if nothing in the world suggests that He will come through and naysayers oppose me, telling me I’m wrong. He proves Himself faithful time and time again as I look to Him to know what is real and true.

Father, take them on a journey to learn how to live in the reality of Your Presence. Take away all false ideas, disbelief and fear. In their place give them faith, truth and ever increasing confidence in You. Amen.