These are turbulent times for most people. The struggle for survival has become more intense. Believing in God in these difficult times is not easy. You need to find reasons as your doubts about God’s existence persist. But not believing in God is even more difficult. You have to find better reasons. Not surprisingly,then, there is an overwhelmingly large number of people in this world who choose to believe in God in the absence of a better alternative. Of course, we cannot be 100 percent firm in belief or disbelief. Many a times we may get reasons to believe,and equally often we can find reasons to deny God’s existence. The thing to understand here is the nature of our doubt. Why they arise and why they persist need to be minutely thought over. The relation between God and an individual is a personal one, a one-to-one relationship. Doubts creep in when our desires that are raised in the form of prayers do not get fulfilled. This leads to weakening of our faith in God out of sheer frustration. However, we must realise that our very concept of faith is wrong. Faith should not depend on quid- pro-quo. It is much beyond that. And much different. The problem is the image of God that we have created in our minds. We tend to see him as a provider of everything and only the provider. Thus, we don’t expect God to take away things. Since we often go overboard in our relationship with God, our desires continuously keep on rising, sometimes even bordering on the impossible. Not that God is not capable of giving those things. That is what miracles are all about. But miracles are an attribute of faith. Faith in our benefactor, the benevolent and magnanimous God. We must trust in God’s justice and realise the fact that God will give everything we deserve, but not everything we desire. There is need for a careful self assessment to find out if whatever we desire is reasonable or not. The personal God is a relationship that would vary from individual to individual, and we would falter in evaluation if we compare with others.Individual Karma is something that we must account for.God is not an entity that is only for us.It is our obsession with self that makes us believe so. The relationship with personal God must be strengthened with faith in order to get God’s blessings and experience his bountiful generosity.
One has to develop total faith. As it is given in the first of the Ten Commandments-‘love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind’. It is important to understand the significance of faith in relationship with a personal God. This is the reason why it is said that’ don’t believe so that you may have faith, have faith so that you may believe’. If we start finding reasons for believing we may end up being perennial doubters. The relationship with God is not a give and take. It is complete surrender. God is certainly the provider but he knows when to provide and what to provide. Something like the Japanese Management idea of Kanban, the just- in- time principle. You will get it when you need it.We all came empty handed in this world and will return so in the other world. As Job said-‘naked did I come hither, naked shall I return thither. God gave and God hath taken away. Blessed be the name of Lord.
shashwatchintan 