One day without God...

"Tammy, I have a challenge for you. Try pretending you're an atheist for a week. Just trying thinking about the world and going about things as if there is no God. Try and feel what it is like to be an atheist for a week. Recondition your thoughts and your thinking to just thinking, "well maybe there isn't a God". If there is a God, and your faith is strong, then this should be nothing but a walk in the park. But try it nonetheless."
I'm in conversations with some people I love, and we disagree on God and His existence and His role in our lives. The above challenge was issued to me. And, the more I think about it, I'm not sure I could do this even for a day.

What is funny, is the last line. "If there is a God, and your faith is strong, then this should be nothing but a walk in the park."

Because there is no question in my mind that God is real, and my faith in Him is so strong, this is a very difficult challenge to me. How can I spend an entire day not thinking about someone I'm in love with? By trying not to think about Him, I think about Him more. Every thought toward Him in my head is a conversation. I pray often for people as they come to mind. To try and cut that off, even for a day?
It's like telling somebody who has been in a long-distance relationship for 14 years to imagine life without your love for even a day. Well, maybe that person doesn't really exist. :)

What proof can we give for love to others, though? Something that is internal, that is not simply emotional, but the emotions are one of the proofs? I don't doubt His existence because I have experienced his Holy Spirit in answer to years of prayer. When you've encountered somebody, you no longer doubt their existence. They're real because you've met them.

This is not a scientific discussion, and for me, I am at a loss for words.

If my faith were weak, if God was just a convenient way for me to feel better about myself after I "make a mistake" and then I can go on with my life selfishly as before, then it would be much easier.
"Oh sure, God is just who I make Him to be and really I am the answer to all my problems."

I have been striving for the last year to remove myself from the throne in my heart and to allow God to take up His residence there. To submit to His authority. To relinquish control over my life, over the lives I'm entrusted to care for. And? I am stumbling often, but my heart is yearning for it to be a victory!

I completely trust God that He will do what He says He will do. He never breaks His word. So, this is one of the discussions that causes my loved ones to recoil. "How could a loving God allow..."
As a parent, I've had to carry out consequences and I was grieved. At times, we state consequences, hoping the child will be deterred by the magnitude. We try to teach impulse control at a young age to prevent larger destructive choices later. (drunk driving would be one)Sometimes my consequences have been rashly stated, much to my regret afterward. I am not saying God's consequences are rash, but I do see examples in the Old Testament of mediation intervening a complete destruction of mankind.
We appeal to His mercy, and once Jesus came, mercy was available to everyone, not just His chosen people.

So, I could pretend to do this for discussion's sake, but in my heart, I would still be conversing and aware and in love with He who made me to love Him. He won my heart and I could never go back now that I know Him.

Have you ever been challenged to do something in regard to your faith?
How did it play out?

~Tammy