Sir, my concern is not whether God is in our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right. Abraham Lincoln

Do you ever get mad when people challenge your way of thinking? I believe we all do because, if we are honest, we always try to think things through and choose the right way. So when somebody comes along and suggests we are wrong, it makes us mad. It makes us defensive. It makes us want to challenge their way of thinking. After all, we have never been wrong before… have we?

I used to be very defensive when it came to my Christian faith –especially when it was challenged by others who professed to be Christiansas well. I really try not that way anymore, because as the years have gone by and as I have studied the Word of God more deeply, I have found that I have been wrong before.

I have also found that the things that I was the most defensive about were often in the areas that I had the weakest defense for. And it made me angry to think that someone would be so bold as to suggest that I might be wrong – especially in areas that I had thought deeply about, had talked deeply about, and had been taught deeply about. In fact, I had deeply explored just about every avenue possible on those matters of great importance… except for reading God’s word and finding out what He had to say.

I have since come to a vital conclusion – as I suspect you also have since you are voluntarily reading an article about faith – and the conclusion is this: Challenges to my faith are good! In fact, they are necessary if I am ever to go beyond the childish desire to have God on my side and mature to the required position of being on God’s side.

So, what is it that makes you mad? Is it when someone questions the way you believe that you were saved? If so, why not study the subject in-depth? There is no area more important to your life than salvation, so why not be sure? And in doing so, if you find a Scriptural basis for your confidence, you can help the person who questioned you in the first place.

And, should we find that we are wrong, we can change! And we will change,you know, if we are wrong because we don’t want to find out at the Judgment that we sincerely believed ourselves to be on God’s side, only to find out that we were choosing our own side and expecting God to join us.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. Proverbs 14:12

I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall. I Peter1:11