To believe or not to believe in God – that is the question. Living as though God existed or as though He did not, what difference does it really make? No one can remain indifferent to this question. We all have to choose. It is like accepting or declining a proposal of marriage. The fact of not choosing is, in the end, the same as refusing the proposal. And similarly with faith – not to choose is, in the end, choosing not to believe.

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The world is sometimes divided into believers and non-believers. In fact, it should be said that there are two kinds of believers: those who believe in God and those who believe that God doesn’t exist. No one has no belief, since it is impossible to prove that God does not exist.

But in order to make a choice, to choose what is best, one must examine the difference between a life with faith in God and a life without God. Even before we ask ourselves whether the Christian faith is true, we might ask if there are advantages if it is true. Is believing in God a pro or a con in our quest for happiness? Do we really need God in order to be happy? If so, our search for the truth about God will be even more highly motivated.

With this in mind, here are 10 reasons why belief in God, and especially in the Christian God of love, offers many great advantages:

1. Having faith gives us the answers to existential questions

Where do I come from? And where am I going? Why was I born? Is my soul immortal? What happens after I die? Does God love me or is He indifferent towards me? There is great joy and profound peace in knowing with certainty the answers to these great questions. In short, belief in God protects us from being ignorant about the essence of life!

2. Having faith gives life a clear meaning

Having the answers to the great questions lets me know my life’s purpose and discern my mission on this earth. And, based on that, I can make the best decisions about the overall directions my life will take. How are we supposed to decide what to study, where to work, how to live, whom to marry, whether or not to have children….if we don’t even know what the point of our life is? Those who have faith know that they have a calling on this earth, that they are not the mere result of random, indifferent chance. In short, belief in God protects us from the absurd!

3. Having faith gives us the hope we need to persevere through hardships

God promises us that anything bad that occurs in our lives happens only because He knows how to turn it into a higher good. In fact, almighty and all-loving God would never allow any evil into the world if He had not foreseen a way to derive good from it. In other terms, God only ever breaks eggs to make omelets! For God, suffering, injustice, sickness and death are never without hope. He assures us that He is always with us, throughout all of our difficulties, and that He walks with us and suffers with us. Moreover, God promises that all our sufferings offered with love become a force for transformation in our lives, in the lives of our loved ones and for the entire world. Suffering is no longer absurd. Suicide isn’t ever a solution. On the contrary, suffering becomes a means of opening our hearts to love, to giving of ourselves, to sacrifice. In short, belief in God protects us from discouragement and despair!

4. Having faith allows us to have an intimate relationship with God

The God of the Bible promises us, not only a life with Him after death, but right now. Through living faith, we develop a personal and loving relationship with God. Through prayer, He speaks to us and listens to us. Through the sacraments, He gives us wonderful gifts. He is like a loving father or a best friend, always present for us, sharing our joys and also our sorrows. Those who believe in God are thus never alone. Their happiness is anchored in a relationship of love that is impossible to destroy. Every person we love can leave us, pass away or even betray us, but God is always faithful, always there, always offering us his compassion. Nothing can separate us from Him, not even death. In short, God protects us from loneliness!

5. Having faith provides us with an endless source of happiness

If you think about it, this relationship of love with God is the only one that can make us fully happy. Our hearts have this insatiable thirst for happiness, such that only God who is infinite can slake our infinite desire! Everything else on this earth, the things we do, the people we know, even if they are often truly good, can never satisfy us completely. Those who limit themselves only to the things of this world are condemned to boredom and dissatisfaction. Saint Augustine said: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” Without God, we forever fall back into dissatisfaction and disappointment, but with God, we are never bored. He always finds a way to surprise us and surpass our expectations. In short, belief in God protects us from melancholy and misery!

“And one lives in a different universe, according to whether one does or does not inhabit the Kingdom of God.”

– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

6. Having faith allows us to experience love without limit

We all know that happiness is intimately connected with our loving relationships. We seek to love and to be loved but, frequently, we hit a wall: others don’t love us the way we would like or, even worse, we are not able to love others the way we would like. Our capacity for loving others and, even more so, for loving ourselves, is quite limited. Can we honestly say that we love ourselves completely? And yet, without a healthy love of ourselves, we cannot love others, because we love others as we love ourselves. But living with God in our lives opens us to love, since God always grants us that wonderful gift called grace. Grace is a force of divine love that enters our hearts and helps us to love as God loves. And God always loves infinitely, his love enables us to realize how worthy of love we are. If I am loved by the God of the universe, it’s because I have an immeasurable dignity, an incredible worth. Christians even believe that God loves us to the extent of adopting us and making us his own beloved children. In short, belief in God protects us from our inability to love perfectly!

7. Having faith gives us the strength to forgive

With the gift of grace, we can even succeed in loving our enemies! It is far from easy to love one’s enemies. To do so, one must first of all be able to forgive. But we know, if we have ever been the object of a serious offence, how extremely difficult it is to forgive. Some even believe that it is impossible. It is said that forgiveness is not in human nature. This is true: it is divine! But having faith gives us precisely that superhuman strength to forgive genuinely, as Jesus forgave his own executioners. Christians believe that forgiveness knows no bounds. Being happy requires having the ability to forgive, and a person who does not forgive remains a prisoner of their own resentment. Forgiving frees us, enabling us to love and be loved again. Without forgiveness, the heart lives forever in the past, in anger, mistrust and sorrow. In short, belief in God protects us from endless conflicts and hate!

8. Having faith offers us forgiveness for our own sins

Thanks to the Word of God, we know that God never tires of forgiving. Mercy is indeed the central message in Christian belief. If I offend my parents or my friends, they can forgive me. But if I offend God, who but He himself can forgive me? Without forgiveness, I would be perpetually at war with God. But if I believe in the Good News of mercy, I have his assurance that I am infinitely forgiven. Anyone who believes in the God of love may thus be freed finally from their wrongs and get on with their life. Moreover, faith delivers us from the prison of guilt, helping us to forgive ourselves for the wrong that we have committed. Since God forgives me, how can I not forgive myself? In short, belief in God protects us from guilt and from being at war with God!

9. Having faith gives us the certainty of final justice

God is love, and the supreme expression of his love is his mercy. But his love is also expressed in his justice. Who would wish for an unjust God, who treated the good and the bad as if there were no difference between them? One of the great outrages of this world is that, unlike in a Disney move, it is often the bad guys who win, while the good guys lose. We don’t always feel that we have been justly rewarded or punished for our good versus our bad deeds. Our faith assures us, thankfully, that at the end of days, there will be a final judgment and each one shall be given what he or she has earned in terms of good and bad. Every injustice will be rectified. The story will have a good ending. This world would be badly constructed, and there would be good reason to be in a constant sense of rebellion if liars and thieves and abusers and dictators always got away with their evil deeds. But no, in the end, good will overcome, and this is God’s promise. What a great motive to turn away from evil and do good, whether or not anyone notices or if we are persecuted for it! In short, belief in God protects us from rebellion and injustice!

10. Having faith gives us a passport to Eternal Life

Probably the most important advantage of all! If we have faith, we know that after death we are promised, not nothingness, but a life of heavenly joy. This eternal life is not like some long human life that does not end; it is participating in the infinite happiness of God himself. It is a life so perfect that we are incapable of imagining it. With faith in heaven, we know that every good thing we have done on this earth will be rewarded. With our faith full of love and charity, we know that our life will not end senselessly in the void or, worse, in hell. Life on this earth is like a pilgrimage towards our encounter with a God who loves us. What great hope! In short, belief in God protects us from the void and from eternal death!

The light of faith does not change the universe, but it allows us to see it as it truly is.

To believe or not to believe in God, there really is a difference. Having faith changes everything in life. Saint-Exupéry said, “And one lives in a different universe, according to whether one does or does not inhabit the Kingdom of God.” When we believe in God, in his Word, his presence, his love, his justice, his forgiveness, his promises – when we believe that life has meaning and that the ones we love are not annihilated when they die, life is much more beautiful.

The light of faith does not change the universe, but it allows us to see it as it truly is. It is as if a new world appeared. It is as if a blind person’s eyes were opened for the first time. With the coming of the Lord, the Bible tells us, the people who dwelt in darkness have seen a great light. The universe has finally appeared as it truly is: a fine and beautiful path, both strenuous and glorious, leading us to the singular love of God. Having faith is like having within oneself a light of hope that is able to conquer any darkness. In short, for those who have faith, evil and death do not get the last word. It will always be life and love that triumph!