1:25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength…2:14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
There are a lot of things I don’t understand about God and the way He works. I don’t understand how God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart1” (Exodus 7:3-13, and others). I don’t understand how God “sends a powerful delusion” to “those who are perishing” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12). We pray for God to be with us when we travel, and to grant us a safe trip. I believe He answers those prayers, but I don’t understand how He does it. Right now, many of us are praying that God will send us a minister to work with our congregation and help us grow, to His glory, and we are praying the He send a Christian couple to work at a nearby Christian children’s home as relief house parents. I have faith that God will honor those requests, but I don’t have a clue how He’ll do it.
You know what else I don’t understand? I don’t understand the kind of love that redeemed me from the pit and offered me the hope of eternal salvation — but I believe it. That’s all we’re asked to do. That’s all God has ever required from His people — a living, active, obedient faith that trusts in His grace to provide.
Do you have that kind of faith?
- For a nicely-written, documented-by-scripture article on this subject, see Who Hardened Pharaoh’s Heart?, by Kyle Butt and Dave Miller.
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One reason we don’t understand God is because we’re so busy telling Him what we want Him to do that we fail to take hold of the Holy Spirit. Christ said the Holy Spirit would comfort and guide us into all truth. John 16:13. The Holy Spirit is available in our lives but we have to accept him. He doesn’t force himself upon us.
So often, and more as I grow older, my prayers contain “O Lord, I really don’t know what is best, I don’t know how to handle the present distress. What to think or to do I have only one clue: all that I know is that I trust only You.”