I wake in the morning to the consciousness of the presence of God. My heart words thankfulness to Him that while I slept He continued to be watchful and loving, caring for all the parts of life that required His attention. Satan trails a thought through my head. “You haven’t seen God. Suppose He is, as the skeptics say, only a crutch in your head. What then?”
In willingness to be fair and open-minded, I try that concept. What then? There is blankness in my heart. The warm love I had directed toward God dries up at its source. My feeling of security disappears. I no longer have an anchor and a certainty to life. There is no longer a sense of direction about where I am going, ultimately. With nothing greater in my head than myself, no purpose greater than the demands of today’s physical existence — because tomorrow may not come, and there is no eternal existence on the horizon — blankness, and then fear and futility flood every crevice of my mind. Without God, it is worse than, “Nothing is left.” It is, “I still exist, and all of the challenges of this world still exist, and yet I face this existence with the acceptance of the dead fact that I have no help. There is no one greater than this frightened self to turn to.” I marvel that suicide is not imminently on the horizon for all of those who lose faith in a Higher Being.
However, a persistent thought pierces the fear of aloneness. “Yes, you do exist. And all the wonders of life and of the physical world around you exist. And your greatest devastation would not be the loss of a husband, or the loss of a parent or a child, whom you have seen. The greatest devastation would be in the very loss of God, even though you have never seen Him. The absoluteness of these facts in your heart speaks to Satan’s mockery and doubt-raising. In all of man’s ‘progress’ and ‘sophistication,’ would humanity not have outgrown this ‘primitive’ belief in God, if He were only a crutch, dreamed up in the minds of humans?” The very soul of humanity cries out the existence of God (Psalm 27:7-10)!
Even today, there are two classes of people in the world: the minority who are conscious of their rejection of God and who would have, statistically, a higher problem rate (behaviorally and emotionally) and a higher suicide rate than believers. On the opposite side are the believers, who are the majority. In some form or another, they cling to their conscious awareness of the existence of God. They may be a million miles from the truth in their understanding of Him, but their hearts confirm that there is a God.
In both minds, the base-factor deals with God! No other single topic can claim such universal and total preoccupation, even while some people are in the throes of denial! This fact alone speaks decisively. If there were no God, in Whose image we are made, and to Whom our spirits call as a lost child to a parent, this universal and continuing outreach to Him would have “evolved” out of existence eons ago.
Another thought comes to mind: I have never seen Satan, either, but there is no doubt about his existence. Why? Reason number one: I can look around and see his work on every hand, as sin and evil and the resulting destruction take their toll. Reason number two: In contrast to Satan’s tactics, God does not trail through our minds a barrage of questions and doubts about Satan’s existence! God, Himself, tells us that Satan roams the earth, like a roaring lion, looking for the souls he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). God fosters our belief in the reality of Satan — because he is real — and God wants us to be forewarned so that our defenses will be up.
Following this line of reasoning, since the prevalence of evil in the world is unquestioned testimony to the existence of Satan, is not the unquenchable good, in contrast, evidence also of the existence of God? Would we not expect that the enemy of God would be the continual instigator of doubts, since God forewarns us that Satan is the father of all lies (John 8:44)? “Thank you, Father, for Your watchful care while I slept, and for a living faith to sustain me during my waking hours.” “‘I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior. … Therefore, you are my witnesses,’ says the Lord, ‘that I am God. Indeed, before the day was, I am He; and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand…’” (Isaiah 43:11-13).
