When we experience God, we experience the uncaused, uncreated, absolute and eternal being. God is His innate traits and His innate traits are Him. That is to say, God does not seem to tell the truth rather He is truth; God is goodness rather than ‘God has goodness in Him’. When we consider the attributes of God, we get to worship Him not only for what is clear to us about him but also the mystery in Him. Reconciling with what is unclear about God can lead us to worship or to unbelief. In the walk of faith, doubt can be a chronic annoyance, boring into the brain while demanding certainty. It is through thinking that one starts believing. Therefore, in our philosophical and spiritual endeavours, doubt can be whelped and groomed. Doubt is double-mindedness – it is considering all sides of the story and then sitting on the fence. The thorn that is doubt can take different forms and prick different susceptibilities. These susceptibilities can be sourced from pressing questions facing us today:
Paul charges us in 1 Peter 3:15 to be prepared to give reasons for the hope we have in Christ. We ought to consider these intellectual prods and engage them to the best of our ability. Like Abraham to the inheritance of Canaan (Genesis 15.8), John the Baptist to the legitimacy of Jesus as the Messiah (Matthew 28:17) and Thomas to the resurrection of Jesus (John 20:25), we are all susceptible to doubt. Instead of sitting on the fence accompanying our doubts, we can choose a side of the fence. We can choose faith, while keeping in mind that faith is not an avoidance of our social plights or an enemy of reason. In fact, our faith should not be an avoidance of social plights or the enemy of reason. Faith with some doubt can be resourceful and productive to a believer. As Tim Keller suggested that a faith with a dose of doubt is like a body with antibodies. Faith does not make us intellectual-invalids. Faith chooses to believe what God says about what and who He is in scriptures, with the hope that he can reveal Himself to us. We can hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering because the one who called us is faithful. By being honest about our doubts to God, we can call on Him and he can tell us great and unsearchable things we do not know.
0 Comments
Writing is a daring and strenuous pursuit for me. More so, writing my thoughts down with the intention of sharing them. I analogize the relationship with my thoughts to a deep-seated stance that is potentially toxic and fatal, but potentially liberating and exalting. With that, my thoughts are not meant to be prescriptive – they aspire to sobriety and maturity, therefore they want to be challenged and optimized. My thoughts are merely mind-processed truths, which should be taken as suggestive signposts. I thought a convenient place to start making ‘signposts’ is exploring the name of my blog, Potted. – an immaculate description of life in/with/alongside Christ. I liken a life with Christ to the act of planting in a flowerpot and later transplanting the plant to a bigger pot or a garden. In the potted analogy, we are the plant and God the Father is the accompanying gardener. John 15 depicts God the father as a diligent and present gardener whose aspiration is working towards fruit. In Christ, we are potted and should God the father remain the gardener, the results are fruit. In gardening, transplanting is an essential plant care necessity. If not done correctly, the plant could die. Going over the plant care routine involved in transplanting plants is helpful for exploring the potted analogy even more: Before transplanting, adequate hydration is needed. Psalm 1 Watering the plant beforehand dampens the soil and therefore ensures the easy removal of the plant. Reading the word of God and meditating on it hydrates us so that we are not spiritually flaccid. Psalm 1 likens an avid bible reader to a tree planted beside a stream. The MSG version further describes the avid reader as a tree replanted in Eden! Despite seasonal changes and stressors, the psalm 1 character bears fruit. Loosening the root ball. Romans 5:4 With the soil being damp, the root ball can be loosened and removed. This can be an involved process, as the pot needs to be inverted and tapped against to loosen the root ball. The gardener might even decide to break the pot. Sometimes the roots are entangled and would need loosening too. Loosening the root ball is the mechanism and mandate of salvation. Loosening the root ball is accompanied with pangs and discomfort from restoration, discipline and growth. Romans 5 asserts that such suffering is followed by perseverance, perseverance by character and character, hope. However, this is not a passive process. For suffering to produce perseverance, we have to have hope of the glory of God. We have to know that there is a competent gardener. An appropriate new pot and compatible soil. 1 Chronicles 4:10. For re-potting, the gardener needs to choose a pot that is one-size bigger than the old one. The gardener also needs to take care that the soil in the new pot is not diseased. This is the hand of God in our lives. With a loving prod, the hand of God shepherds us along the right paths. It is protective and on-duty. The character of 1 Chronicles 4:10, Jabez, understood that the hand of God is protective and present. He prayed that the Lord enlarges his territory, be with him so to protect him. This simple prayer is a model that we can use to pray for blessings, influence, God’s protection and presence. Blessings that especially equip us with being blessings to others, so that we are effective in our sphere of influence, while recognizing our deep need for God’s presence in our lives. As we grow in Christ, we constantly need to be re-potted to bigger pots and eventually to the garden – we need our territories enlarged. Continued hydration and sun exposure. Romans 1:17 and 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 Once the plant is in the new pot, the gardener can bring it into sunlight, gradually exposing it to brighter areas. From faith to faith (Romans 1:17), strength to strength and glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:16-18) speak of the potential for transformation, exaltation, glorification and empowerment as we turn to the Lord. God wants to be the wind under our sails, sustaining and empowering us through life. Salvation is self-sustaining. The potting and re-potting in our salvation is unceasing. New seasons bring new fruit, new pests and new environmental changes, but with a constant God, we can respond with an unwavering faith. We can have the knowledge that our God is a diligent gardener, looking for an appropriate pot or garden and compatible soil, rich in organic matter to keep us nourished. |
Rea Zwane"I am just trying to live it up with a big God" Archives
April 2022
Categories |