How well do you know God? At a Bible study, someone posed
the question, “Have you ever had an experience with God?” To me, this question
must mean, “Have you ever had direct personal awareness of God’s ever present
sovereignty in your life?” Recently, I have been realizing how tragically easy
it is for me to overlook God, and I think the commonness of such a question certainly
attests to it. Surely there can be no point in this life on earth in which I am
not experiencing God. He wills me into existence and breathes life into me. He
preserves the course of all nature. He directs all events and establishes and
governs all things. It is one thing to lose track of God’s omnipresence and
ultimate dominion in all things, and another thing altogether to imagine a
reality in which, even for a fraction of a second, you are not a part of it.
Solomon, in all his wisdom, readily admitted that God totally fills and even
transcends the heavens and the earth. David the Psalmist wrote it most
beautifully, asserting that we could not escape God’s presence even if we
ascend to the highest heavens, climb onto the wings of the dawn, or travel to
the remotest parts of the sea. Jesus held that not a single sparrow falls to
the ground outside of the Father.
How well do you know God? Do you believe in God just as you
believe in the sun because you can see it, or do you believe in God just as you
believe in the sun because by it you see everything else? Perhaps we often see
only the trees, thereby missing the forest. In other words, perhaps we overlook
the true and living God by seeking only what we believe to be signs and wonders
when the entire earth around us attests to Him. Stones cry out, forests sing,
fields exhort, rivers clap, seas roar, and mountains tremble. The whole earth,
even inanimate nature, mightily testifies to God. Indeed, my whole life on this
earth is a regular and invariable experience with God. We would be nothing more than lumps of
dirt without His breath of life inside us and without His craftsmanship
coursing through our veins. He is the Alpha and Omega, regardless of whether or
not we believe it, acknowledge it, or understand it. We can no less escape
God’s supreme sovereignty by believing ourselves independent than can a
prisoner escape from jail by believing himself free.
How well do you know God? If God orders and disposes all
things according to His own purpose and grace (Ps 145:8, 9; 1Co 8:6), and He
has decreed for His own glory all things that come to pass (Eph 1:11), and He
continually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and events (1Ch 29:11),
then what about all the evil in this world? What about sin? God is neither the
author nor approver of sin (Hab 1:13), nor does He abridge the accountability
of moral, intelligent creatures (1Pe 1:17). But if Satan is the author of
temptation, and God is the author of Satan, who is ultimately responsible? What
does God will and what does He simply endure? What does He purpose and what
does He allow to pass? What does He ordain and what does He approve? What is
predestined and what is free will? Are these concepts necessarily mutually
exclusive or can they be reconciled? Is Scripture ambiguous or is it, like the
chaste maiden, merely garrisoned against the brute? Is it even important to
explore these questions? I think so. I believe we are to talk about Scripture
daily. We are to meditate upon it. We are to search for it. It should be read
and it should be known. We should desire it above all else. We should read it
to be wise, believe it to be saved, and practice it to be holy. As C. S. Lewis
writes, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite
importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” How well do
you know God? Who is God to you? I’d love to hear your own questions or answers, struggles or
responses to the Word!
