Wanting My Trust - Not My Advice
Who has understood the mind of the LORD,
or instructed him as his counselor?
Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge
or showed him the path of understanding?
(Isaiah 40:13-14)
Who instructed God? Whom did he consult? Think of...the design of the human body - the amazing intricacy and efficiency of a single cell, the sheer magnitude of the connecting fibers between nerve cells in the brain. Who could have served as the Lord's consultant on a design task like that? Could you or I?
It's an absurd question, isn't it? Yet we continually want to be God's adviser in His providential workings. We continually wan to tell Him how certain circumstances should be changed. Or worse, we question God's wisdom when we can't understand what He's doing.
God's ways are mysterious. But when Paul we can learn to exult in this with praise:
How fathomless the depths of God's resources, wisdom,
and knowledge! How unsearchable His decisions, and how
mysterious His methods! For who has ever understood the
thoughts of the Lord, or has ever been His adviser?...
Glory to Him forever!
(Romans 11:33-36, Charles B. Williams translation)
To this end may the following words from J. L. Dagg encourage us:
It should fill us with joy that infinite (or better yet, exclusive) wisdom guides the
affairs of the world. Many of its events are shrouded in
darkness and mystery, and inextricable confusion sometimes
seems to reign. Often wickedness prevails, and God seems
to have forgotten the creatures that he has made. Our own
path through life is dark and devious, and beset with
difficulties and dangers. How full of consolation is the
doctrine that infinite (again, exclusive) wisdom directs every event, brings...
light out of darkness, and, to those who love God, causes
all things, whatever be their present aspect and apparent
tendency, to work together for good.
So with joy and consolation let us stand in awe of the infinite (exclusive) wisdom of God manifested in creation, providence, and redemption. But let's do more. One of the marks of a God-fearing person is trust in the Lord: "The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love" (Psalm 147:11). To hope in His unfailing love is to trust Him. As we stand in awe, let us trust Him, even when we don't understand what He is dong.
I trust in You, O Lord; I praise You, and I give thanks to You, for You are my light and my salvation and the stronghold of my life. "I love you, O LORD, my strength. Psalm 27:1, 18:1 I love You, O Lord. Help me not to depend on the wisdom of the world, for it is foolishness in Your sight. Help me to embrace instead Your wisdom, "the wisdom that comes from heaven," the wisdom that "is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere." 1 Corinthians 3:19; James 3:17
For Your Love, O Lord, I Exalt You
O infinite (exclusive) God! Who has understood Your mind or instructed You as Your counselor? Before the universe was created it existed in all its intricate complexity in Your vast mind. Even the tiny cells in our bodies testify to the sheer brilliance of Your creative genius.
...there's something about the love of God that should astound us as sinners. His greatness causes us to stand in awe. His holiness lays us prostrate in the dust. His wisdom calls forth our admiration. But His love, rightly understood, causes us to gasp in amazement. It's not without reason that Charles Wesley penned those memorable words, "Amazing love! How can it be that Thou my God shouldst die for me?" We can understand God's love to a worthy object, but it's the fact that He loves sinners that so astonishes us.
In the physical realm there are two opposing forces called centrifugal and centripetal. Centrifugal force tends to pull away from a center of rotation, while centripetal forces pull towards the center...These two opposing forces can help us understand something of our relationship with God. The centrifugal force represents those attributes of God such as His holiness and soverignty that cause us to bow in awe and self-abasement before Him. They hold us revenrently distant from the One who, by the simple power of His word, created the universe out of nothing.
The centripetal force represents the love of God. It surrounds us with grace and mercy and draws us with cords of love into the Father's warm embrace. To properly fear and worship God we must understand and respond to both these forces.
The fear of God certainly denotes the only fitting response to His awesome greatness and transcendent majesty. It's also a recognition of our own frailty, weakness, and sinfulness in the presence of His sovereign power and infinite holiness. At the same time, the fear of God also denotes the love and humble gratitude of the person who, conscious of his own sinfulness and exposure to divine wrath, has experienced the grace and mercy of God in the forgiveness of his sins.
This aspect of the fear of God is beautifully expressed in Psalm 130:3-4.
If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.
Here it is not the dread of divine wrath, but rather gratitude for divine forgiveness that draws forth from the psalmist the response he calls fear.
But these attributes -awe and gratitude- are necessary to a proper expression of the fear of God. Just as the centrifugal and centripetal forces cannot exist interdependently, so neither awe nor gratitude alone can represent adequately the biblical meaning of the fear of the Lord. Sometimes we will sense one more strongly than the other. We may on occasion experience overwhelming awe as God reveals Himself to our hearts in His majesty, or we may experience inexpressible gratitude as we encounter His mercy. Cherish those moments, but seek to maintain a balance between awe and gratitude.
There should always be a healthy tension between the confidence with which we come before God as His children and the reverntial awe with which we behold Him as our soverign Lord. There's a difference between holy familiarity and unholy familiarity with God. We have indeed received teh Spiritu of adoption, the Spirit by whom we cry, "Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15). This expression conveys the warmth and confidence with which we may come into His presence.
Soverign God of all creation, I come to You today through Jesus Christ, and through Him I call You Father. I acknowledge that in myself I'm the worst of sinners, but through Christ Jesus I'm your son.
Loving Father, I worship You as the source of every single blessing in my life. "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing." "All my fountains are in you." I have nothing that I did not receive from You. Psalm 16:2; 87:7; 1 Corinthians 4:7
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