“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.” – Isaiah 55:9
We can get so pigeon-holed in our thinking of needing to be able to understand all of life...all the ways God works, what God has ordained and what He hasn’t. We can even fight, with absolute assurance, that He is a certain way, and in doing so we can box Him in to being smaller than He actually is. For His ways are higher than our ways. He sees the whole picture, and there’s a greater story that’s been written long before our hearts began their first beat on this earth.
But we live in this tension between seeking Him with our entire heart, mind, soul, and strength… and also having the faith to trust Him when things don’t make sense to us.
We can’t have faith if we have all the answers.
“Now faith is the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” - Hebrews 11:1
Faith is the foundation that can’t be shaken for those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Saviour. The very basis of our faith is not having all the answers. This concept is counter-cultural in a world where everyone is encouraged to ‘be whoever you want to be’ and ‘discern for yourself your own knowledge, opinions, and morals’.
But faith is:
Choosing to believe that God has a plan when we’re questioning who we are and what our purpose is.
Choosing to believe that God is in control when everything around us screams chaos.
Choosing to believe that God holds us in the pit of our pain.
Choosing to believe that God will provide when we see no visible way out.
It’s having faith when we don’t have all the answers.
What’s been running through my mind the last few days is the story in Mark 9, of a father who brings his son to Jesus to have him healed.
The father says to Jesus, “Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.” Jesus says, “What do you mean, ‘If I can’? Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” (ref. Mark 9: 14-29).
I love the honesty of this father, pleading on behalf of his son… since God is the only One Who can help us with our unbelief. The areas where we don’t understand, and we’re lacking in faith to see that God is still in control – we need to surrender our unbelief to God, just like the father did to Jesus. May our heart’s-cry be for God to increase our faith, and to trust Him in all circumstances.
Responsive Prayer:
“Lord I thank you for Who You are. I thank you that You hear my cries and know my heart intimately. Help me to trust the Father that You are. I surrender my unbelief to You and ask Holy Spirit to work in me and increase my faith – trusting the Sovereignty of God in all circumstances, especially the ones that I lack understanding. Thank you that I’m never alone on this journey and that as I lean into Who You are, You’ll reveal Yourself to me as is fitting for what You know I can handle and understand. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
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