What Belongs to Me - Blog # 56

 Dear God,

I don’t know everything. I don’t know a lot actually, but I need to base my life on what I know. Obsessing over the “why” will never bring me peace. Jesus brings me peace not more knowledge. God, I’m tired of trying to figure things out when I can just trust You and leave things alone. Bring us emotional restoration to move forward with faith. 

Love,

Grace

I Want to Know

“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.” 1 Corinthians 13:8

I like knowing things. I like to know the “why” of things. It’s why I decided in my heart to believe in God because I didn’t want to live without a why, and I didn’t have to. My desire for understanding has led me to some great places, but it has not always served me well in my faith.

As I’ve grown older and walked longer with God, I find myself in many situations that have no “why”. Why did I meet them? Why am I here and they’re not? Why did this happen? Why didn’t that happen? God has remained present enough for me to know that He’s actively silent on such matters.

I think I like to use the word “deserve” as a way to rationalize God. They got that because they deserved it. I got this because I deserved it. Good or bad, it’s always served with “deserve”. Because my mind wants to believe that God duals out punishment and justice or mercy and grace based on people and actions. I like to think that I control what happens.

We know that there is a natural law and order to the world. Physics says that if you drop something and there’s a strong enough force of gravity, it’ll fall. If you’re mean, you won’t make friends! If you do a crime, you’ll go to jail. If you’re nice, good things will happen to you. If you’re faithful, God will protect you from adversities.

My mind somehow erases the trials and sufferings of very faithful people. The fact that faithfulness can bring you more pain is somehow lost on me even with the crucifiction of Jesus in plain sight. That someone perfect would get punishment is not anti-gospel, it’s anti-Grace’s understanding. 

God does not operate on karma. God doesn’t work based on what I think should happen in given situations. God doesn’t need to consult me on how to properly punish or reward behavior. God is God. So, why would He make sense to me?

So, while I want to know why and how things happen, we’ve just established that I don’t get the ways God works. I don’t know why things happen, and God has given me that as a gift because what I do know is that God loves me and everything that He does is attributed to that love.

God doesn’t always give us knowledge or His understanding, but He gives us His love! And in 1 Corinthians we know what lasts. Love never fails. Knowledge will one day pass away. Even if you had the blueprint to creation, the in’s and out’s of everything in existence, that would fail eventually too. You wouldn’t need it one day.

Trust is saying that God knows the way. Faith is believing that even if this looks nothing like it should, we are on the right track at the right time. Faith is saying that I can’t see but God is taking me where I need to go. Faith is not knowing everything but knowing enough to trust and take a leap of faith when warranted.

What Belongs to Me

Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

God has His secrets. He has things only He knows about. 

When Jesus came to this earth, He gave up that omniscient (all-knowing) aspect to be subservient to the mission. In the Gospels, Jesus talks about when heaven will finally be reconciled with earth and the Final Judgment will come to pass.

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (Matt. 24:26; cf. Mark 13:32).

Last week I talked about the power of now, but there’s actually a power in not knowing! When we don’t know, we can always be ready and live in the present. Imagine God had written, “Jesus will come back to earth March 21, 2023” then all of us (including me) would go crazy until March 20, 2023 11:59:59PM. 

If you know when your parents are visiting, you know you can clean up your act right before they arrive at your doorstep. If you know when the UberEats driver is arriving, you’ll have to put on some pants before the arrival time. But if you don’t know, you have to always be ready and waiting. God wants the eagerness from us. He doesn’t want your best behavior at the last minute, but He wants you to love Him: heart, mind, and soul because you don’t know when Jesus returns.

Jesus’ example to us is that not knowing something doesn’t make you lesser. It offers an opportunity of submission to God’s ways and timing. Yet, we aren’t left in the dark completely. We have been given enough instructions and truth that we can follow God. All those things belong to us. The promises of Jesus belong to us. The power of now belongs to us. Hope, faith, love, joy, peace, and patience belong to me and my future children forever.

Left in the Dark

A simple truth: if you needed to know, God would’ve told you.

Your healing isn’t blocked because they won’t (and sometimes can’t) give you answers. Your story isn’t done because you don’t know why that happened. God is not withholding anything good from you because you’re confused. You have everything you need right now to live faithfully and joyfully with God.

I know that God hears me. 1 John 5:14

I know that when I was the least deserving, Jesus died for me. Romans 5:8

I know that nothing can separate God’s love from me. Romans 8:31-39

We have everything we need to know, and all of that belongs to us. The rest belong to God. The rest will remain in the dark. Where faith and trust live are in that space when we need God to provide and we know that God is our provider. When we need a miracle, and we know that’s God’s favorite thing to do. When we know that God can, but sometimes He won’t and that’s not going to stop us from following Him into the fire.

“I want to know how this ends, God.”

What if it’s better that you don’t know? What if that’s the adventure God wants you to experience? Being faithful and fruitful when you don’t know how the story goes. Being submitted to God’s will even when you don’t understand. 

When you don’t know everything, you allow God to surprise you! You let Jesus turn water into wine. You let five loaves and two fish feed thousands of people. You walk on water. You see the dead be brought back to life.

Recently, my best friend went to Florida and when she came back, she surprised me with souvenirs! She brought me things I wouldn’t have ever asked her for, but now I’m so glad to have thanks to her. God’s just like that. He brings you good things you don’t ask for because you don’t always know what’s good for you. God wants to go beyond your expectations and grant you the joy of experiencing all that comes with the unexpected.