“Stop With All the Jesus Talk”

“Stop pushing your faith onto people”, “Kira, why are you so adamant about this stuff?”, “Write about other stuff…not everything is about Christianity”, “Take it down a notch with all this Jesus stuff,” “Why are you so obsessed with this Jesus guy?,” and that’s just the beginning of it. Even if I haven’t heard it verbally, some of these thoughts may have crossed your mind and that’s okay. I get it.

First off, thank you to everyone who reads this. I appreciate that you care enough to hear about the different milestones in my life whether it’s getting into my major to ending up in the ER. Thank you to those who are at the very least, giving me a chance to explain why I love Jesus and why I trust the Bible. Praise God. Praise God for all of you – especially those of you that are skeptical about this Jesus guy, thank you for still following this blog enough even when you’re not a fan of some of the things I write.

This post is not really a story. This post isn’t to aggressively try to evangelize you. This is more or less of a disorganized reflection. I’m just here to write. However, this is a blog and if you have asked any of the opening questions, here are your answers. Read this. See your reflection in this post.  

I went to church because I grew up in a church. I believed in Jesus because that’s what my parents believed. It wasn’t until college that I truly made my faith my own. College and living “on my own” made me truly question how intentional I was going to be about my faith. My parents weren’t going to know if I skipped church that morning. They wouldn’t know if I prayed before I ate. They wouldn’t know if I was a part of a small group. It wasn’t until college where I had to look into my heart and ask myself if Romans 10:9 applied to me. Do I truly call Jesus Lord? Do I think there’s a god and is it the “Christian God”? Am I intentional about praying or do I pray only when it’s convenient for me? Do I read my devotionals, do I go to church, do I show up at a small group…or do I only do those things when it’s convenient for me? My friend, can you relate to those questions? Let me be clear, salvation is through Christ alone, not your good works (Ephesians 2:8-9), but with all that being said, that doesn’t mean God doesn’t want us to get lazy when it comes to living out the “Christian lifestyle” just because we’re busy or it’s too hard to resist temptation.

In my time at college, my heart and my mind have been on fire for Jesus. Being intentional about your faith is game-changer, Christian. I can’t get enough of Jesus. I’ve had pain from trials and tribulations while at college. UW is a great school but their harsh way of weeding out students can be brutal on your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. Even the transition from high school to being an adult is hard. Losing friends is hard. Breakups are hard. Being honest with yourself is hard. Feeling worthy is hard. Being a person is hard. Let’s grab coffee sometime and I will tell you about all the hurt I’ve experienced and am experiencing but how my comfort and my hope is in the Bible. I’m less stressed and less worried because I trust in an all-knowing, all-loving and completely perfect God.

Don’t take this the wrong way, this is not meant for me to sound self-righteous or arrogant or prideful or anything other than loving and encouraging. Ask my family. Ask my friends. I promise you they will give you a list, no, a book of my flaws. I promise you, give me time and upon spending time with me, you’ll see the several ways I fall short. Praise God for His patience. Pray that I can learn to love graciously, serve humbly and do everything while giving all the glory to Him. Pray for me. And don’t get me wrong with a heart “on fire for Jesus”, I still am not always in the mood to go to church. I sometimes skip my Bible reading time. I don’t nearly pray as often as I should. I still shy away from bringing up Jesus in my daily conversations because I’m worried about what others think. I am nothing but a sinner made worthy through Jesus Christ.

Learning more about Jesus as I made my faith my own led me to question why I was so willing to follow a religion. Out of all the religions, why am I following Christianity and why do I love Jesus so much? I’ve read the entire Bible twice and have visited some of the same passages over and over again since I was a kid, but how did I know that these aren’t just stories? I had several doubts and questions. It made me wonder if I had grown up in a household that believed in Mormonism, would I be a Mormon? If I grew up with atheist parents, would a god seem like a crazy idea? If I grew up with Muslim parents, would I put my faith in Islam? The answer to all of those is; probably yes. That drove me crazy. So then that made me truly question Christianity over the last five to six months.

“How do I know I trust Jesus?” “How do I know that I’m saved?” “How do I know that atheism is not the way?” “How do I know that the God I believe is even real?” I hated when someone would ask me why I believed in God and I couldn’t give them a valid answer except saying that I believe because my parents believe and I just trust them. I hated when I got mad that someone wouldn’t even consider that Jesus is God yet I stayed as far as I could from learning about Joesph Smith. Do you see your reflection in this story, friend?

Over the last five to six months, I’ve really looked into my faith and I’ve really looked into others’ faith. To me, I finally have a good enough answer to questions like “How do you know God is real?”, “Why do you know the Christians got it right and how do you know that you don’t need another book to be saved?” I don’t have all the answers, in fact, if I wrote down all my questions I could probably fill an entire book, but I feel so much stronger in my faith because I’ve really explored it and have explored others. Let me tell you I am overwhelmed with the evidence and the reasoning that supports Christianity. I am beyond amazed with how history lines up perfectly with the Bible. I am flabbergasted that someone of the Judaism faith even admits that nothing in archaeology has contradicted the Bible.

My life has not been easy. I’ve had some ridiculous trials and times of adversity, just like you, friend. Yet with all of that, I will praise Him. Yet with these hardships, I find comfort in Him. Friend, I must give Him all the glory and that’s why I talk about Jesus so much. I talk about God because everything I’ve accomplished is because of Him, not me. With every struggle, my faith is in Him because I know He is all-knowing and all-loving. I praise Him because in this imperfect world, He is perfect.

Whatever you believe, I don’t think having doubts or questions is a bad thing, I think it is actually a really good thing because you care enough to question your beliefs, but I do think it is bad to ask and not find answers. My Christian friend, I know you’re frustrated because it feels like your best friend isn’t even giving Christianity a chance. My Christian friend, I know you’re upset that your grandpa won’t even try coming to one church sermon with you because his heart is so set on Islam. My Christian friend, I get it. But ask yourself, if the roles were reversed, how would you respond? How would you respond if a Jehovah’s Witness asked you to read the Watchtower? My Christian friend, I know you love Jesus, but have you truly considered why you know you trust Him?

I hesitantly ask you, all of you, to answer the hard questions about your faith. See how other religions answer those hard questions. My Christian friend, I encourage you to pray and read the books of John and 1 John before you dive into this “investigation for Christ”. But also, I say this knowing that there’s a ridiculous amount of evidence that supports Christianity. I say this knowing that I’ve looked into other religions. I say this while I’ve spent days trying to disprove the resurrection and Christianity. I say this as I’ve talked to people from different religions. Friend, if…if Christianity got it right, that means there is way more to the life than this imperfect world offers. If Christianity is right, all that stands between you and salvation is the belief in Jesus Christ (John 3:16). That’s it. No works, just truly believing and confessing that “Jesus is Lord” like it says in Romans 10:9.  If Christianity got this right, that means absolutely everything. That’s why I am so adamant about this. That’s why I want you to at least, at the very least, consider that maybe this Jesus guy was more than a lunatic. My skeptical friend, read the book of John. I humbly ask you to give it a chance.

“Stop with all the Jesus talk”, no, I can’t do that. Trying to disprove Christianity has only made my appreciation for Christianity grow. I found that I love Jesus more because I have looked into the hard questions of the Bible. I found that there’s more of a reason to trust God as I’ve investigated the chances that there is no god. And with everything, I will give Jesus all the glory because it’s Him and not me. Everything is because of Him. Friends, that’s why I must talk about Jesus.

²⁴ but, on the other hand, Jesus holds His priesthood permanently and without change, because He lives on forever. ²⁵ Therefore He is able also to save forever (completely, perfectly, for eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede and intervene on their behalf [with God].

Hebrews 7:24-25