By David ReayMonday 30 Apr 2018LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 2 minutes
Read Isaiah 55:8-9
8 My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. (NLT)
You may have heard the illustration of looking at a piece of fabric through a magnifying glass. Things seem really clear at the centre but fuzzy around the edges. Which is a bit like examining the life of faith.
We know enough of God, we know enough of the Scriptures, to recognise our need of help and God’s provision of it through Jesus. God has not left us in the dark about his love for us and our need of him. Our faith is not some irrational leap in the dark.
And yet as our text reminds us, we are paddling in the shallows when it comes to comprehending all that is God and life. As soon as we reckon we have figured out God we must face the fact that this ‘God’ is a creature of our own imagination and intellect.
It is a mistake to think that we must nail down each and every part of Christian faith and make it crystal clear to ourselves and others. It is wrong to think we have to come up with all the answers to all the questions. This is not being knowledgeable, it is being arrogant. Intolerance of mystery and uncertainty is not a sign of strong faith but a deeply rooted insecurity that demands we know all there is to know. It is a trust in our own reasoning capacity, our own knowledge, rather than trust in a loving and wise God.
True wisdom is not exhaustive knowledge. True wisdom is all about knowing what you don’t and can’t know.
Blessings
David Reay