Do you only believe what you can observe? What if you don't observe the effects of God in your life, do you still believe?
There is as much "faith" in science as there is in religion, more really if you think about it. For believers, faith is not choosing to believe in something even though you lack evidence, faith is actually an internal confident persuasion that God is who he says he is. The religion of science says, we don't know why things work they way they do but we know it's not because of God. A statement like that takes great faith.
The point I'd like to make with this article is not about science, my point is to help you as a believer realize that you have more evidence than you realize. All you have to do is answer one question, "is God who he says he is?" You may not always experience his attributes but does that change who he is?
Back to science, Physicists have a problem, their models of nature do not hold up once reaching the quantum level. Quantum Physics has revealed that matter and energy do not operate the same on a micro level as they do on a macro level. The smaller scientists are able to go in their observations, the more their understanding breaks down. Physicists are currently looking for more forces and particles to explain why space, time and matter function differently on the smaller levels. Some physicists like Brian Greene even go so far as to say they must go back to the drawing board if they cannot discover more bits of matter or forces that make what the do observe work.
Take gravity for instance. It is one of the 4 forces in the standard model of physics, along with electromagnetic (light, radio waves, etc...) and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Physicists have no idea what gravity is. They think it's made up of gravitons, like light is made of photons, but they haven't discovered gravitons yet. Gravity is defined as the attraction between all objects that have mass and energy. But beyond that, nada, no explanation of what it is, how it works, or what is it about having mass that is attractive to other things of mass. Yet all of physics is based on the standard model.
The people that say they only believe what they say they can observe have no clue why we're not flying off the planet. What's significant about this is that much of experimentation where precise measurements and calculations need to be determined is based on the consistency of gravity. They know the mass os distant stars based on how much gravity they create. Astrophysicists know where blackholes are based on the way the gravity of nearby stars are affected.
It's kind of like this, imagine an invisible person making you breakfast every morning at 8am. You never see this person, you never hear anything being cooked but every morning at 8am breakfast is sitting on your table waiting for you. That's how scientists understand gravity. No explanation where it came from but it'a something you need to survive. No capacity to observe what's acting on the food to be prepared, yet it's as consistent as an atomic clock.
For the believer, God is more consistent than gravity. We don't understand how he brings things about in our lives but we can trust that he will always behave in a way consistent with his nature. The more we know the character and integrity of God, the greater our faith and confidence in him will be. He is more trustworthy and dependable than gravity. He's always at work with our best interest in mind. He is always seeking to establish his good plans in our lives. And he is always working to reveal his own divine nature in us through his promises to us.
For those interested, here's a brief description of the 4 forces in the standard model of particle physics:
Small Group Questions
What stood out to you in this message?
When you think about the faithfulness of God, what do you think about?
How does God's faithfulness line up with the condition of your life?
What do you do when your life doesn't reflect what God says is possible?
