I'm not sure I fully believe. How can I experience the gospel?
Ragnar Oborn
One thing that has amazed me is the number of people that I know, who are very different from each other, that have experienced the gospel through encountering the God of the Gospel. And many of them had lots of doubts, questions and issues still unresolved on the way. I've learned with them as I've watched them come to know God in small faltering steps. What do they have in common?
Jesus said, (Matthew 7:7) "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you." Notice what he does not say. He does not say, "Understand, believe and accept everything and you will find" No, he simply says we need to ask him. The Matthew statement is a promise, and it is either true (Jesus is real and alive and will connect with you) or it is false (Jesus is either dead, non-existent or unable/unwilling to respond). Now you have very little to lose, and potentially a whole lot to gain by taking him up on his invitation. Ask him to show himself to you, be open to ways in which he may be responding, and keep at it a bit. If the promise is not true, what have you lost? You've talked (silently or quietly probably) to the air only, and spent a little time learning some trivia. If it is true, then you will experience the gospel.
I know people walking this planet today, who honestly tried to 'ask' in such a way, still carrying lots of unresolved questions, and the responses they got were nothing short of miraculous. They tried God out. God's complaint with people is not that they don't believe, it is that they do not even seek. Psalm 14:2-3 says, "The Lord looks down from heaven at the human race, to see if there is anyone who is wise and seeks God. Everyone rejects God..." To experience the gospel you need to first of all, resist your internal tendency to avoid God, and start to ask.
But then have a teachable spirit. The Bible says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6).