You’re doing something right now that is such a part of your daily life you don’t often even think about it. Yet, it is necessary for your survival. I am talking about your breathing, specifically the fact that you breathe in oxygen and nitrogen. Even though you can’t see those two gases, you see their effects. If someone came up to you and said, "I can’t see oxygen or nitrogen so how do I know they’re real?" You could respond, "They’re keeping you alive right now!" God made us. Without Him being real, we would not exist.

Today, I’m going to be answering the question: If God is real, why can’t people see or touch Him?. I"ll be doing this in two parts. 1. God’s handiwork and 2. What about feelings?

The reason we cannot physically see or touch God is because God is Spirit. If you think about it, there are a lot of other intangibles we live with. Love, joy, peace, etc. You can’t see love physically floating around. You can’t grasp it. But you can see its effects on a loving person’s attitudes and actions. And you can see what it does to those who are loved. In the same way, we see the effects of God’s existence through His handiwork. "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–His eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." Romans 1:20 His creation is incredible! That certainly includes us.

Have you ever thought about how many things must work perfectly to keep us alive? We need oxygen in our air to survive. But if the air contained more than 21% oxygen, we could die. The chemical reactions in our bodies would speed up too much, causing strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, etc. If the percentage was raised even 10%, it is estimated that our life spans would be cut in half. Dr. Jay L. Wile, in Exploring Creation with Chemistry, wrote, "For ever 1 percent increase in the amount of oxygen in the air, the chance of natural forest fires occurring goes up 70 percent!" Thankfully, air continues to be made up of 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, and 1% of other gases–a perfect mixture. And this is just one tiny part of the universe we live in!

Let’s move on to point two. What about feelings? Some people may think or say, "Okay. I see the evidence. The effects. But I just don’t feel like God’s real."

Psalm 14:1 says, "The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’"

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

I think this has a lot to do with our feelings-based culture. For example, we have twisted what love is. Love is not just a feeling. If you love someone only when you feel like it, then perhaps you don’t truly love that person. Selfish love, which "loves" only when it is convenient, is not true love at all. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." True love never fails. We can’t just trust what we feel in our hearts. Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"

We must come back to absolutes. The Bible is inerrant. When the Bible and God’s creation clearly show that God is real, non-believers should believe–regardless of their feelings. True faith is not based on feelings. "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1

I would like to conclude by encouraging you to see God’s handiwork in the amazing universe we live in. I want to encourage you not to be guided by your feelings. I really like something that was said in the movie Fireproof. Caleb’s friend, Lt. Michael Simmons, is talking. "Don’t just follow your heart, ‘cause your heart can be deceived, but you got to lead your heart."