Prayer to Choose to Believe – April 8, 2023

Years ago,  I struggled with what to believe and what not to believe when it comes to God.  When it comes to Jesus.  The virgin birth.  The Crucifixion of Christ.  Good Friday.  Easter Sunday.  The  death and the Resurrection.  Eternal life after human death.

Mom and Dad gave me the gift of their faith in God.  Despite the faith that was passed on to me from my parents, the struggles I faced with polio shook my beliefs in God.  Why did God let me have polio.?  Why did God not help doctors make the polio vaccine sooner?  How could God allow me to be quarantined and alone at Hedgecroft Hospital at age six?  How could a merciful God leave me in the iron lung to breathe at night for five years?  Why did God not answer my prayers to be cured?

I am lame from polio.  However, my faith was not and is not blind.  Through years of prayer, I saw evidence with my senses that God and His grace were and are present in the darkest of times.  That darkness enabled me to clearly see the light and love of God around me.  Witnessing God’s presence in my life, the easier it became for me to choose to believe in God.

I understand that others have doubts in the existence of God.  The forgiveness of sin in God’s sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ.  I get it.  There were many doubters over 2000 years ago who learned otherwise on the very first Easter Sunday.  Those apostles, followers, saints, and forgiven sinners showed us God’s truth, way, and light.  They showed us what is worthy to choose to believe, now and always.

As I have grown in my faith, I have chosen to believe that God is real.  That miracles do happen.  That God created me.  At birth God ensouled me with a perfect spirit.  That God chose for me the exact time and place in which be born.  That God had, has, and always will have a purpose in gifting me life.  That angels are as real as the surgical scars on my back.  That God is always present with me.  That God is there to cry with me when I cry.  To laugh with me when I laugh.  That Christ died on Good Friday so that I (and those I love) will live forever.  That my death will not be the end of me.  My death will be the beginning of my new and eternal life with God, the Father of us all.

I choose to believe that I am not an accident.  That what happens in my life is not just a series of random events.  I choose to believe I am a child of God.  So are you.  I choose to believe that one of the purposes God intended for my life was for me to write these weekly prayers and that you may read them.

I find it inconceivable that one day I will die and that will be the end of me.  Instead, I choose to believe that in my world and within everyone there is God.  That the moment my heart stops beating, God will continue to believe in me and love me forever.  Easter Sunday always follows Good Friday.

God has spoken in Scripture about choosing to believe.

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Let us pray.

Dear God, when I doubt You or Your divine presence in my world, please open my eyes.  With my eyes opened, I, as a rational person, can see evidence which reaffirms my faith, my beliefs, and my trust in You.

God, thank You for choosing me in Your grace to be Your special child.  In thanksgiving for the gift of Your grace, please strengthen in me my choice to believe in You.

God, every infant child has an insatiable active mind, a child who uses the senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch to know and understand what is truly real.  May I, as Your child, use the same senses to know and see You in my world.  To see Your signs around me. Your angels near me.  And Your spirit in me.

God, may I choose Your way every day as You have chosen me, Your child, to live forever in the birth, death, and resurrection of Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Amen

If you think Jack’s prayer helps you or will help someone you know, please forward it to them. Jack may never make millions selling books or writing prayers, but spreading God’s good news to others is reward enough for him.

Ann Boland, Jack’s Publicist