1 Cor
13:8-12 NLT - Now we know only a little,
and even the gift of prophecy reveals little! But when the end comes, these
special gifts will all disappear. It's like this: When I was a child, I spoke
and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I grew up, I put away
childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we
will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and
incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me
now.
I love
that Paul, who wrote so many of the epistles in the New Testament claimed we
all knew in part. I believe this is true. Just like children we have to learn
things in stages and God reveals things that way.
It’s good
that it makes us want to know more, but we should not be making things up to
fill in the holes due to impatience. When we do that we skew God’s Word. God
reveals things as we are able to learn and properly digest them. I always
equate this to an onion. The first few layers come off pretty easy. Deeper in
they are fresher and as they come loose the smell is strong enough to make our
eyes water. We all have our own layers we should peel away to be like Christ.
The deeper we go the harder it may get, but well worth the effort.
God did
not leave us here without help. He gave us the Holy Spirit as our counselor and
guide. He made sure we had his revelations over time written into the Bible. If
we are unsure that something is of God, we should be checking the Bible. The
Holy Spirit will help us feel God’s peace about things that are right, but we
should always be in our Bible daily.
Knowing
the Bible keeps us close to God’s plan, promises, and purpose. It is our weapon
against our enemy who would rather devour us than see us take even one step
with Christ. Without daily Bible study to know more and maintain our connection
with God, we leave ourselves open to being sidetracked by the wiles of our
enemy. This should really scare us: we can know the right way to go, but still
run off the grid to do wrong. Some of the kings of Israel were guilty of this
and led the people into greater wrongs than could have been imagined before.
I
encourage you to keep pushing through and growing. If you can’t figure
something out, go to your pastor or someone you trust with God’s Word to help
you understand it. Get encouragement when you need it from a church member you know.
God made us a family. We are not perfect, but together we can learn from each
other and grow stronger in the Lord.
For the
non-believers reading this, I encourage you to seek out Jesus and when you do
accept him, I promise you will know who to run to. You will know the Christian
friends or people in your life that truly walk with Jesus and they will welcome
you in so you can learn to grow with God. It happened for me at thirty-three.
Don’t go looking for perfect. Go looking for God’s love and you will see it in
them.
Let’s all
learn to walk with the Lord together and shine his love into a dark world one
step at a time.
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