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The Voice of God Within

"God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.'"¹

"In his classic novel Crime and Punishment, Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky tells the story of a young man who rejects the existence of God. This young man murders an old woman. Believing there is no righteous God who will judge, and therefore no absolute standard of right and wrong, he knows that he should not feel guilty. However, he is consumed with a sense of guilt until he confesses his crime and hands his life over to the God he once rejected."²

In many cases, if not in most, atheism is more likely to be a moral issue rather than an intellectual issue. If one believes in God, he knows that he is morally responsible and cannot live as he pleases without struggling with a guilty conscience. On the other hand, if one doesn't believe in God, he rationalizes that he is not morally responsible to anyone and can live according to his own rules or as he pleases. In living this way there is always the danger of deadening one's conscience and silencing the voice of God within.

If there weren't a God—a Higher Authority—why would we even have a conscience and instinctively know that we are morally responsible and accountable?

The very first sentence in God's Word the Bible says, "In the beginning God...."³ and later it says, "for in him we live and move and have our being."¹ Either we believe in God or we become a god unto ourselves and live according to our own standards. Imagine the chaos and destruction if everyone in the world lived as a law unto himself.

The critical issue for all of us is that we know God and live according to his standards as found in his Word, the Bible, for "blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD."⁴ 

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please open the eyes of my understanding so that I will see and know that You are the God of all creation—which includes me—so that I can and will say to You in all confidence, 'My LORD and my God.' Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus's name, amen."

1. Acts 17:27-28 (NKJV).
2. Joe Boot, Searching for Truth, © 2002. Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com. Cited on “A Slice of Infinity,” www.rzim.org/slice/slice.php
3. Genesis 1:1.
4. Psalm 33:12 (NIV).

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