Published by Believing or not believing in God does not come only from intellectual accent. Faith is a gift, developed from positive childhood relationships, especially with our parents and through practical religious experiences. Let me share with you a letter from Dr. Juliana Jernigan, a medical missionary in Ghana, West Africa. If the so-called atheists in our society had not been denied a similar experience(see description in this article) as Lucas had recently, they would have no difficulty affirming the presence and power of their Heavenly Father.
“Being the only doctor working in the clinic sometimes makes the workload overwhelming, not only for me, but also for my husband and kids, who do not spend much time with their mom. But do not worry, since Lucas, our five-year-old son, found a true treasure: the power of prayer. It all started one night when we were praying together, and he just burst out in tears, and told Jesus that he really missed his mommy. In his prayer he asked Jesus to make everyone in the villages ‘well’ so that nobody would come to the clinic the next day.
“The next morning I walked down the few steps to the clinic expecting to see a full load of patients occupying the benches by the front door, but to my complete surprise, I found only the nurses and the clinic chaplain chatting on the same benches. We all looked at each other with a puzzled look as we waited for a while, expecting the patients to come. On that day, they never came.
“Then it hit me-Lucas’s prayer. I ended up having a whole day to stay at home and to enjoy my family. Lucas did not seem amazed at all when I told him what had happened (and he gave me a look that said to me, ‘Why are you so surprised, mommy? Do you not remember we prayed about it?’). He just sat there with the cutest smile on his face, rejoicing in the gift. Since that day, he has had a few other requests for more time with mom, all beautifully and uniquely answered by his Father.”
If you were denied personal love experiences as a child, it is not too late for you to find faith by developing very positive personal life experiences. “The Meaning of Persons” by the late Dr. Paul Tournier has been helpful to many who missed positive faith development in early life. Dr. Tourier, as a practicing psychiatrist, became a leading therapist once he was able to “catch-up” with the development of his person-hood by accepting love from his wife and from some Christian men who accepted him in their fellowship of prayer. Paul Tourier shared that because his parents both died when he was a small child, he somehow grew up not feeling close to anyone. This lack of the relational part of his personality made it difficult for him to have faith in a personal God, until he developed closeness with others.
Biblical support: “Jesus asked Peter, ‘Do you love me more than your fishing business?’” (John 21:15)
