To Know God

By: Braley Veras

Hello everyone, 

My name is Braley Veras; a husband, father to two little munchkins and lead pastor of Evidence of Grace Church NYC. I also love music and truly enjoy writing songs. I am what people would call “a pk” which means a pastor’s kid. I grew up running around the pews, messing up the church bathrooms and learning to play almost every instrument. 

This is awesome because it allowed me to grow with a solid foundation and sound theology but it can also lead you down a path where you rely on your parent’s relationship with God and don’t strive to develop one for you. I quickly learned that God is the good of all but He works with you in ways that are unique and helpful for you. It took certain situations in my life to deconstruct the ideologies I grew up with and realize that God wanted to work with me in a different way. 

We are not in an assembly line where we all get the same thing and yes we are all on the path to salvation but that journey is different for everyone. God is a father, He is a friend, He is a counselor and most important He knows ME. He knows the ins and outs of my thoughts, He has seen the situations that I have gone through and knows what He needs to provide. He takes shape to fit into my situation and let me know I am not alone and guess what…neither are you. 

I want to challenge you to desire to know God for you and not through the experiences of others. I can remember my first year of marriage being a tough one financially. I had a good and stable job and one sunday afternoon while playing basketball with my friends, I tore my achilles tendon. This injury changed my life in so many ways. I couldn’t walk for a while, I was in the middle of school, I lost my job and everything turned upside down. 

I want to give a shoutout to my wife because she held it down, so to my fellas out there….FIND A GOOD WIFE. Guess what, I prayed for a miracle and it did not happen and I questioned everything. As I am going through this journey, God is tugging at my heart and shining a light on deficiencies in my life. I was rushing through life, church and family in order to achieve something temporary. God slowed me down in order to deconstruct my theology and teach a valuable lesson.

There are times where God can take you out of a situation and there are times where God walks you through them. In that moment God was walking me through that moment to reveal to me who He was and how we needed to work for me. That season is now just a scar and some pains here and there but a lesson in God’s faithfulness to me. His grace is there even in moments where I am far. 

• Braley