What Do I Really Know?

Often I have wondered what God must think of us at times. On the one hand we talk of having faith, trusting and that God is in control but then we turn around and act like “know it alls”. We act as if we see the big picture of our lives even though we barely have a portion of the picture in focus. Sometimes we write people off as lost causes and abandon our attempts to rescue them before they even see the need to be rescued. Other times we’re convinced of the motives of others when they say or do something that hurts our feelings when we haven’t even begun to understand the road they are travelling, let alone talk to that individual to try to understand. Too often we are “know it all” experts that really don’t know much, that need to be reminded of what we really do know.

What would you say is the hardest thing to know about God? What’s the hardest aspect of God’s character for you to accept? What’s the hardest part of faith in God?

I expect some of us would say that the hardest part of faith is believing in a God we can’t see, hear, or touch. How much easier it would be, we might think, if we could only perceive God with our senses? This is an age old desire, of course, which has led people throughout the centuries to form idols to make faith easier. Yet God is abundantly clear in rejecting that option. We’re stuck with a God whom we just can’t perceive with our five senses, and sometimes that’s hard.

Others of us would say the hardest thing about God is letting God be God. We acknowledge God's utter sovereignty over all things, including ourselves. And we recognize His unimpeachable wisdom. Yet sometimes we struggle to submit to God or to trust God’s ways. We want to run our own lives, if not the lives of those around us. In a sense, we want to be God. This is also an old, old problem. In fact, it’s the root of human sin that reared it’s ugly head way back in the garden.

As I’ve gotten older, I don’t wrestle as much with believing that God exists. Even in my darkest hours I still believe that there is a God. Now, a big challenge is letting God be God. I want to run my own life. Submission to God doesn’t come easily to me. Nor does trust come easily. And that’s why neither God’s sovereignty nor His imperceptibility are, for me, the hardest thing about God. Instead, the hardest thing about God is something that, ironically, is wrapped up with some of the most wonderful things about God, namely, His compassion and kindness, His grace and mercy.

And that’s why for me each day is a journey into discovering the opportunity of knowing Him and partnering with Him as He transforms my life and touches the lives of people with whom I will cross paths with today. Each day is a journey into discovering those wonderful traits of love in our Father.... His compassion and kindness, His grace and mercy.