Once we are saved as Christians, we spend most of the rest of our days getting to know God better. Our spiritual growth is measured by how much we trust in God. When we are young Christians, we don’t yet know how this trust should look or feel. As we learn more about Him and come to recognize His work in our lives, as we see and feel His influence, trust grows. We study His Word, we pray, we go to church, and we encourage others on this faith journey.
And as our faith grows, we get quite comfortable with our knowledge of God and our trust in Him. We are in a relationship with the One True God, we are familiar with His statutes and teachings, we even get life right more than we get it wrong, and we know enough to be able to help others walk with God.
We worship God as our Righteousness, our Shepherd, and our Provider. We learn that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer. He speaks peace into our storms, He counsels when we need refuge, He saves us from sin. He is with us in Spirit, helping us navigate the treacherous waters of this Earth. All is well with my soul.
We call Him Almighty, Father, Lord, Friend, Comforter, Creator, the Alpha and the Omega. And He is all these things. But I sometimes fear that we get so familiar with Him that we forget that He is GOD. The grace God shows us, the mercy He bestows upon us, and the relationship He wants with us must never allow us to think that we are in any way equals. Because we are not.
One of the biggest misconceptions we as Christians may have about God is that we think we understand Him. We don’t.
The God who creates life so delicately that we need a microscope to see it holds the vast expanse of an infinite universe in His hand. The God who saved His people from Egypt because He loved them is the God who exiled His people to Babylon because He loved them. The God who raised a little girl from the dead because He saw the suffering in her father’s eyes is the Father who gave up His only Son, so that we can have a chance at eternal life.
We do not know His ways.
Therefore, we can trust Him with our deepest fears, because we do not know the extent of His power. We can pray for impossible situations, precisely because His understanding surpasses ours. We can obey when His commands go against our reasoning, because we can not comprehend the fullness of His authority. We can forgive the unforgivable, knowing His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We can stop limiting others by our judgments, for His heart toward them remains hidden from us. We can give generously beyond our means because we do not know the breadth of His provision. We can surrender our carefully laid plans because we do not know His purposes. We can love our enemies, because we do not know His redemptive work in their lives. We can wait without understanding, because we do not know His perfect timing. We can step into uncertainty, because we do not know where His guidance leads. We can rest in His silence, because we do not know the ways He speaks. We can serve without seeing results, because we do not see what He sees. We can hope in the midst of suffering, because we do not know the extent of His healing. We can trust that He will make all things right, because we do not know the fullness of His justice. We can release our loved ones into His hands, because we do not know the depth of His care for them. We can choose vulnerability over self-protection because we do not know how He shields us. We can extend mercy to the undeserving because we do not know the depths of the mercy He has shown us.
Be careful with how you represent God in this world. Let it not be said that souls were lost because you thought you knew God’s ways.