(unmarked journal entry – presumably matthew 22)

we should know that there is no way to trick God. no question that will confuse Him. there is nothing He doesn’t know about…

we do need to keep in mind that God’s will and purposes are so far beyond our understanding that we will just have to concede the fact that we cannot understand Him of His reasons for doing whatever it is that He desires.

God is truly a mystery. His will is a mystery, and His very nature is a mystery.

but He gives us hope for coming to understand a very small part of what He’s up to by giving us the Scriptures and the Spirit. once those two have their proper place in our lives, we can be comfortable in knowing that He is a perfect mystery. He is not incomplete, and His perfection itself is beyond our understanding.

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i can tell from my handwriting on this one that i was barely awake enough to write. i have no other context to when this was written, but i was definitely tired. and i’m okay with that. when we are tired, our defenses are down, and we can be more open to just listen to God. i am in the midst of putting the final touches on a sermon that i will be delivering soon, and it is a great reminder that i am not going to stand in front of anyone and speak by my own authority or from a great store of wisdom that i have built for myself.

scripture tells us that when we speak, we should speak as though they are the very words of God coming from us. (1 peter 4:11) we do not speak on our own, but rely on God, mysterious though He is, to give us the words to say. when we speak from ourselves, we will always be puffed up and ego driven. but when we speak from God, we can know that we were just a vessel for His Spirit to work in the life of someone else.

i pray that we all, as Christians, can put ourselves aside and speak the words of God today…content to know that we won’t understand every little detail.