Excerpted from Jim Andrew’s Polishing God’s Monuments.
When the Lord’s ways do not neatly conform to our pat little paradigms of what seems (to our fallible minds) right and just, and good and faithful, it says something about human nature that usually the first thought that comes to mind is that something is wrong with God. Somehow the last thing that occurs to us is that God is simply too big for our small boxes. It is imperative at such times that we learn to be humble, not haughty. God always deserves the benefit of the doubt. And, faith always pleads with us, “Dear soul, trust in God’s power, trust God’s wisdom, trust God’s goodness, trust God’s faithfulness—even though to your mixed-up, emotionally over-charged mind he doesn’t seem to be living up to his resume or promises. Just do it anyways.Christian common sense should also remind us that divine revelation is always a far more reliable barometer of reality that our personal perceptions, distorted as they are by how we think a moral and upright God is obliged to behave in this situation or that. Friends, my advice is this: discount personal feelings—rest in the biblical facts. Don’t always be awash in how things seem; anchor your faith on how divine revelation says they are. Never allow blind emotions to float you off into the open sea of doubt.
With that adjustment, one can trust his goodness even when God may not seem to be good; one can trust his wisdom even when he may not seem to be wise; one can trust he is acting in character even when he may not seem to be measuring up to his own revealed profile; one can trust his power even when it seems he is weak; one can trust his faithfulness even when it seems he is not being faithful.
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Comments (5) »
1. Robert N. Landrum
August 14, 2007
5:46 PM
This is probably the number one problem for people that are not reformed theologically.
2. donsands
August 14, 2007
7:01 PM
We need to know His grace is always sufficient. And we need grace to even know this.
It’s all about God loving us, not us trusting Him, though we surely need to trust Him.
3. lisa
August 14, 2007
9:47 PM
Excellent. Thank you. I needed to read this.
4. lisa
August 14, 2007
10:00 PM
Robert… I beg to differ. I think you can put a boat load of reformed believers on that open sea of doubt. We all have our moments.
5. SteveE
August 15, 2007
12:23 AM
While it may be that we put God in boxes, it is only if we have a choice that we do so.
Him living up to our conceptions, our ideas, must mean a modicum of individual control and a willingness of ours to accept the limitations imposed on us by his Grace.
However, if His grace is the imposing factor, and our salvation and ability to accept this dependant upon Him, then what we consider our acceptance, or not, will not affect the position we face in relation to our emotions, acceptance, defiance, life, liberty, freedom, or any other factor of the freedoms offered by Christ, or God, since our acceptance or refusal is not a part of our salvation, based upon reformed teachings….even those of the new age who have accepted that Calvinistic teachings of old do not necessarrily apply to old or new Christianity.
While this is a fact in reformed teachings…it remains unexplained and unsatisfactiorially corrected in any realm. God’s goodness is not a factor, rather what people view as His goodness…and reformed teachings contradict a God who is willing to over look faults and sin and reach out to a sinner unless He soverignly elects him and disregards much of scripture, under reformed teachings.
I will NEVER figure out how I see so many non-reformed or non-Calvinsitic teachings incorporated into reformed doctrine, as if they can be part of and not completely opposite of God…scriptural…teachings. It is almost as if, the understanding that Calvinistic teachings don’t reach the goal, but in some oblique way, teachings of opposite thoughts are included and fazed in, under the guise of new understanding.
I just don’t get it.