Hilde

How can I know that what I believe is true is true? How can I know that God is who the Bible says he is? I’ve been spending some time with people that believe differently than me, and it always makes me question my own faith. It is very important to do that, because how else can I know that I do not only believe out of habit or comfort or other feelings? I think it is important that I believe what is true, not just what is pleasurable.

I saw Elvira Nikolaisen tell Fredrik Skavland about her beliefs during “Først og sist” on Friday. She grew up in a believing home, and used to believe in God herself. Now she doesn’t. She said she came to a point where her brains said something different about the truth than her feelings or habits. That made me think: do I believe what I believe simply because that’s what I’ve always done, and that’s what feels comfortable? It’s more important to me what is really true than what feels comfortable. Sometimes doubt comes over me, and this was one of the times. I started asking myself: How can I find out what is most likely to be true?

I’ve heard about people walking away from their faith because of doubt. Somehow it is easy to think that I should try something else for a while, quit praying and reading my bible for a while to find out what is true, because it might allow me to find out that something else is true. But then I thought to myself: Hilde, if someone tells you something that you’re in doubt about, how can you find out if it is true? -Probably not by stopping thinking about it. Probably not by talking to someone else about something different either. I would rather have to question it, study it, do research on it. And I thought: to find out if the bible is true you’ll have to read it more! Study it, do researches on it, test it! If it is true, you’ll discover it.

And thinking about all my Christian life, I think I already have discovered it.