It’s fascinating to watch God open someone’s eyes to the Truth of the gospel when they have been schooled in religious performance all their lives. They want to believe in the reality of grace, but have so many questions about what they’ve been taught in the past. It’s as if they can’t move on in grace until they get all the questions answered to their intellect’s satisfaction.
Now I’m not one to despise the intellect. God gave us a brain for a reason. I love people who ask questions and try to sort out things in ways that make sense. But if we’re going to wait for all our questions to be answered before we move on down the road with him, I’m afraid some of us will never move.
Easter morning Sara and I stole a few, quiet moments on our patio in the cool of the day. We read the resurrection story from Luke. What a day. Women reported an empty tomb, but Peter hadn’t found anything there. Two brothers have a conversation with a man on the road, they later recognized was Jesus. Finally Jesus appears to them all at the end of the day. He came through the wall into their room and they behold him. And some of the first words out of his mouth were something I think we all need to hear in our own context:
“Don’t be upset and don’t let all those doubting questions take over.” (Luke 24:38, THE MESSAGE)
In the presence of the Resurrected Christ, they had a choice. Embrace him and let him resolve your questions and concerns in the going, or settle back in those doubting questions and never take the journey to begin with. If we’re really looking to follow Jesus, would he allow us to be deceived by a false grace? If we ask the Father for bread, will he let us pick up a stone instead?
So many brothers and sisters I know get paralyzed when they haven’t figured out answers to every question, about something they sense him leading them to do, or even just believing that the Gospel of grace, is simply that. What if we trusted Jesus to sort out our questions in the going, rather than having them all answered before we head out? We talked on a podcast a few weeks ago about the gap many people talk about between their head and their heart. I have been asked countless times, “How do I get what I know in my head, into my heart?”
Robert, a friend of mine from Virginia, suggested that perhaps God’s love is won in our heart (Romans 5:5), not our heads. Instead of trying to get our heads to convince our hearts of a reality, perhaps the greater freedom is to let our hearts when over our heads. Our hearts already know how loved we are by him. Our hearts already bear witness to his reality. It’s our heads that have a hard time catching up.
Questions can be important, but we must not let them rule the day. Instead, embrace the One your heart already knows. Live out of that reality and you’ll find your questions will get sorted out in the going. Try to answer all your questions first, and you’ll never get anywhere on this journey.
Wayne,
I loved what you shared here, thanks.
It truly is amazing, right in the midst of the knowledge of good and evil doing what it does best, keeping a person fixated on, right vs wrong, good vs bad, the right way vs the wrong way, is the portal of grace.
Entering through this portal ushers us into His presence and somehow the discovery of this wonder of being loved seems to settle much of the blizzard in our snow globes we use to live in.
Yes. The purpose of “Life” is to live it, not solve it. Perhaps we are not mean’t to solve that which we cannon live:
“Do not now seek answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. The point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. Take whatever comes with great trust.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke, “Letters to a Young Poet”
Yes! When you know Papa loves you in your heart, nothing else matters.
Yes, there will be questions, but it’s so much more fun finding the answers with Papa’s help. It is a joyous adventure.
Charles
Wayne,
I loved what you shared here, thanks.
It truly is amazing, right in the midst of the knowledge of good and evil doing what it does best, keeping a person fixated on, right vs wrong, good vs bad, the right way vs the wrong way, is the portal of grace.
Entering through this portal ushers us into His presence and somehow the discovery of this wonder of being loved seems to settle much of the blizzard in our snow globes we use to live in.
Yes. The purpose of “Life” is to live it, not solve it. Perhaps we are not mean’t to solve that which we cannon live:
“Do not now seek answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. The point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. Take whatever comes with great trust.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke, “Letters to a Young Poet”
I see questions as stop lights on the journey. In faith we embark on this wonderful journey when we here Jesus say, “Follow Me.”
However, if before we leave the house to follow Him we first called the local police department and asked them to tell us when all of the traffic lights were on green and not red we’d never leave the house. Yet, once on the road Father may want us to stop at some red lights so he can get our attention in order to teach us, but some of us worry about where this journey may take us that we never fully trust Him. What we don’t recognize is that when we fail to completely trust Jesus the light will stay on red. The light only turns green when we quit trying to answer these questions ourselves and trust in His love.
Bob F.
Yes! When you know Papa loves you in your heart, nothing else matters.
Yes, there will be questions, but it’s so much more fun finding the answers with Papa’s help. It is a joyous adventure.
Charles
I see questions as stop lights on the journey. In faith we embark on this wonderful journey when we here Jesus say, “Follow Me.”
However, if before we leave the house to follow Him we first called the local police department and asked them to tell us when all of the traffic lights were on green and not red we’d never leave the house. Yet, once on the road Father may want us to stop at some red lights so he can get our attention in order to teach us, but some of us worry about where this journey may take us that we never fully trust Him. What we don’t recognize is that when we fail to completely trust Jesus the light will stay on red. The light only turns green when we quit trying to answer these questions ourselves and trust in His love.
Bob F.
Thanks for sharing Wayne. I think that I’m finding the voice of God and His agenda to be so different from my ideas and my agenda. Learning to hear His voice can be kind of a messy process because even as I am pretty sure I’m hearing His voice, I find myself unsure of the outcome, or if I’m misunderstanding His leading, I could crash and burn. That’s where His grace is a comfort as it frees me to make mistakes as I’m learning through moving forward when I don’t know the outcome. Thanks for putting to words a description of the process I’m experiencing. Encouraging us to move forward even when all our questions aren’t answered, and all the ducks aren’t in a row.
Thanks for sharing Wayne. I think that I’m finding the voice of God and His agenda to be so different from my ideas and my agenda. Learning to hear His voice can be kind of a messy process because even as I am pretty sure I’m hearing His voice, I find myself unsure of the outcome, or if I’m misunderstanding His leading, I could crash and burn. That’s where His grace is a comfort as it frees me to make mistakes as I’m learning through moving forward when I don’t know the outcome. Thanks for putting to words a description of the process I’m experiencing. Encouraging us to move forward even when all our questions aren’t answered, and all the ducks aren’t in a row.
Wayne, this blog is timely…
I’m going to ask you a question that I just asked someone else.
A good question, indeed – are people led astray by a ‘false grace?’
Why does the New Testament warn the early churches again and again about ‘falling away?’
What is the purpose of this, if grace is as widespread as I’d like to believe?
Wayne, this blog is timely…
I’m going to ask you a question that I just asked someone else.
A good question, indeed – are people led astray by a ‘false grace?’
Why does the New Testament warn the early churches again and again about ‘falling away?’
What is the purpose of this, if grace is as widespread as I’d like to believe?