The God You Know
Some unexpected paradoxes come with faith in Christ. There is the promise that the meek shall inherit the Earth, that true greatness comes through humility, that the Christian leader must have the heart of a servant. That through Adam, all of us are sinners, but in Christ, all of those who believe in Him are counted righteous. That the law reveals us as sinners, but, in Christ, we are no longer under the law, but living in His grace. Above all, that our rift with God was so complete and hopeless that God Himself had to die and be raised from the dead to atone for our sins.
God would not be great if He were held captive to our whims. One of the encouragements that I take from Christ being a high priest after the order of Melchizedek is that once again scripture reveals to us that God has a plan which cannot be derailed. From the dawn of time, He has had a path to reconciliation that terminates with His people living eternally in the glory of His presence. His ways are not our ways and it is not up to us to fix our situation.
A grave error that I made repeatedly in my dating life before Christ (long before I met the wife God had for me) was that I would seek out the sort of person that I thought would best accessorize my persona. I looked for style of clothes, taste in music, appearance. In retrospect, I am terribly embarrassed at how dehumanizing it was to view people in that way.
I fear we often do this with God. We make Him out to be whatever we want Him to be, whatever best suits who we are, but we don’t bother to learn who He really is. The Bible is God's revealed word about Himself. It contains everything He wants us to know about Him, everything we need for life and godliness (2 Pt. 1.3). There is not a Christian who can live enough to exhaust what scripture has to teach about God.
I take great comfort in the fact that God is greater than me, that He has a plan to work all things out for good, that it is His plan and not mine, and that His plan cannot be foiled. Another seeming paradox of the Christian life is that I am at my strongest when, in weakness, I trust God for who He really is.
