“I used to believe but now this has happened …”
“If God is a God of love why …”
“I tried being a Christian, but I fell out with God …”
These aren’t my words, but I’ve heard words like them often enough.
Long ago a man called Jeremiah said that there was one thing worth boasting about.
The only thing worth boasting about, he said, is that you know enough to understand God.
Stop there a second. Read that last sentence again.
Jeremiah says that someone who knows God will understand that God is committed to three things:
1. Love – the word means ‘steadfast love’ and ‘kindness.’
2. Justice – acting in favour of those who do right
3. Righteousness – being faithful to everything he has committed to.
I know of no shortcut to knowing God, or at least no shortcut to the understanding that Jeremiah wrote about.
1. You will only understand God’s love once you have felt that he is not loving.
2. You will only understand God’s justice once you have felt that he is letting the world go to rot.
3. You will only understand God’s righteousness once you have thought that he has let you down.
4. You will only understand God through prayers of disappointment, questions and maybe even anguish.
I’m not joking. You will tell God many times that he is not fair.
Take a look at the Bible.
· See Jesus in anguish in the garden of Gethsemane.
· See Jeremiah crying out to God that he has been tricked.
· Read Paul’s letter as he writes about the time he felt as if he was under the sentence of death.
· See Jonah running away because he thought that God had it wrong.
You don’t need qualifications to get to know God. But to know him well takes time, perseverance and energy with many setbacks along the way.
Gradually we learn, in the words of Psalm 23, that God’s steadfast love is following us all the days of our lives.
So here are two suggestions:
1. Pray – tell God exactly how you are and what you think about him. Prize honesty over saying the right thing. We’ll be looking at this in our Lent studies, and I hope these will really help you.
2. Read the Bible or listen to a recording. The more you read the more you will get the big story and the more you will know God. Ask me questions – I’m here to help you.
Let’s aim for true wisdom.
In his grace
James
Comments