Page 95 - Grace150 Devotional

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105

“God lies,” my friend said to me on the bus one day. “How can you believe a
god that lies?” I was nine years old, and I responded with a memory verse from
Sunday school’s Well-Versed Kids program. Numbers 23:19 (NIV) says, “God
is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his
mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?”
Then came the toughest question of all. “Do you believe that, or is that what your
parents told you?”
Questions like that forced me to make my faith my own, and challenge my own
beliefs. I’ve researched what atheists believe. I dug deeper into Bible study. I
learned to fight unbelief, even my own, with spiritual truths.
I’ve realized no other religion, including atheism, gives a satisfying answer to
the crucial question of why we were placed on this earth. Grace Presbyterian’s
mission statement summarizes it brilliantly: we were placed on this earth to love
God, love others, and make disciples. We have a purpose.

Lord, we praise You for this comforting truth, and for the trials and challenges
that force us to make our faith our own.
– Emma Kate Stoller

devotions for the journey DAY 88