Skip to main content

Not Knowing

If you are serious about knowing God, then you need to get serious about not knowing.  One result of the fall is that we are all basically prone to illusion.  This makes one wonder why we should even attempt to know God. The only answer is because God wants to be known, and He will teach us.

I have to admit that the more I feel that I know God, the more I know that He is past finding out.  Rather than discourage me, it actually amazes me.  I am humbled by the fact that despite how magnificent He is in relation to how fallen I am He still wants me to know Him. He blesses all my attempts to seek Him, even my failures.  In fact, my failure to know Him is a backwards way of helping me to know Him more because I must learn humility to know God.

My pride keeps me determined to look at life my own way and ignore that my way is a sure sign that my view of God is most inaccurate.  I naturally blame Him when things go wrong or expect that I have to beg Him to see things from my point of view.  This shows how far removed my thoughts are about who God really is.

What I know is that God wants to be known.  What I know is that I can pray for God to be known by myself and by those I care about.  Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:17-18: I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.

I want that prayer answered in my heart.  I want to know God better.  I can’t know Him through my mind—it is fallen and limited.  I cannot know God through my emotions—they will lead me to fallen conclusions.  I must know God in my spirit—the part of me that is made in His image.  The eyes of my heart must be enlightened by God himself.  I can’t know Him without His help.

What I have come to know about God is that I must learn how much about Him that I cannot know.  I am finite and the eyes of my heart are veiled.  I search to know Him as much as possible on this earth, but I will always come up short.  I have gotten to a place of knowing Him well enough to accept the hard things I cannot understand.  I know enough to know that what is a mystery remains a mystery for today, but someday will make sense.

My conclusion is that what I have come to know about God makes what I cannot know peaceful to my soul.  Yes, I stray away and stress out for moments in time, but I always come back to what I know about God.  I know He is good.  I know He cares for me.  I know that I am dearly loved.  When I remember what I know, it makes not knowing peaceful.

Copyright © 2013.  Deborah R. Newman www.teatimeforyoursoul.com  All Rights Reserved.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Pilgrimage that Started with Tears

                Who would think I would shed tears deciding to set out on a wonderful journey that I have longed to take for many years?   Before I was ready to fully accept God’s invitation for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, I had to journey to a place of agreement between what my soul wanted and what the Lord wanted for me.   For years I have been declining opportunities to travel to Israel—not because I didn’t want to go but because I wanted to go with my husband by my side.   I know that God could have arranged that for me, but instead He asked me to accept that He wanted me to be willing to go and leave everything behind.   When I was asked to make a decision about going on a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, God gave me this verse in answer to my prayer -- Debi, observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are cr...
2 comments
Read more

Why Me?

              When something tragic or unexpected happens, our first question seems to be, Why me?   It’s only human to feel this way and wonder why life has got to be so hard.   God has helped me look at my unwanted circumstances with a different question.   Rather than keep the focus on my pain and ask, Why me?   I focus on Him and wonder, How can You be glorified when everything is going wrong?             Adding one more word to that question makes a huge difference spiritually and opens my soul to find so much more than just my pain.   Another way to look at life’s tragedies is, Why not me ?   Sure, we each have our own amount of personal sorrows. These are the kind of sorrows that have no answers.      We can't explain away death, cancer, rape, bankruptcy and other heartaches.   It is easier to explain...
Post a Comment
Read more

Holy Saturday

Nothing is written about the events of Holy Saturday except Luke 23:56, “they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.” These few words speak volumes about our life with Christ.   What was it like for these ladies to rest on the Sabbath?   They had watched carefully, they knew how quickly Jesus’ body was laid in the grave. The men had brought spices and linens, but they had little time to properly anoint this most precious of all bodies.   As the women watched carefully, they made mental note of the supplies that would be necessary to complete this sacred act of burial as it should be. They spent the last few hours before sunset to prepare the spices for this holy act of reverence. The Sabbath signaled the time for rest.   I’m sure they didn’t feel like resting, but by complying out of obedience they were probably served by its benefits.   Their minds racing from the horror they had just witnessed, at best they could allow their bodies to rest and ...
Post a Comment
Read more