Our relationship with God, established by faith, is the only basis for peace of mind and satisfaction. Lately I have been pondering on the cause and effect expressed in this statement.
Scientific inquiry always looks for the cause and effect relationship between observable phenomena. But what if, like the chicken or the egg dilemma, the effect also happen to be the cause? This would ensure a vicious circle.
For the Christian there is another question that deserves an answer. "Which comes first - faith or obedience,unbelief or disobedience?"
Disobedience is the root of unbelief. Unbelief is the mother of further disobedience. Faith is voluntary submission within a person's own power. If faith is not exercised, the true cause lies deeper than all intellectual reasons, it lies in the moral aversion of human will and in the pride of independence which says "Who is Lord over us? Why should we have to depend on Jesus Christ? As faith is obedience and submission, so faith breeds obedience, but unbelief leads on to higher handed rebellion. With dreadful reciprocity of influence, the less one trust, the more he disobeys; the more he disobeys, the less he trusts.
Which cause/effect relationship is at work in my life: faith and obedience, or unbelief and disobedience? The question is worth careful study for eternity is at stake.
Perhaps John the Baptist said it best: "whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:36).
The chicken and egg controversy may never be resolved to everyone's satisfaction. But don't let that keep you from resolving the most important question in your life; your relationship to the Lord.
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