Could you describe your interest in God as mathematical? As in, God is an equation of some kind to be solved, and if He doesn’t add up, you lose interest in Him? For example, God is described as “love.” God is described as “powerful.” And yet bad things happen. Evil things happen. Just yesterday, for example, the five-year-old daughter of Steven Curtis Chapman as accidentally killed by her older brother in a freak car accident (story). How can a God who is described as loving and powerful allow such a heart-breaking thing to happen? So we quest for some kind of solution to this mathematical conundrum. Something isn’t “adding up” in this equation. We’re driven to dismiss God altogether, put Him on the shelf for the time being, or look for alternative explanations to make the equation pan out. But God isn’t a math problem. He isn’t a “problem” to be solved. He’s a Person to be enjoyed and adored. Pastor John mentioned this as a key idea that gave him the desire to change from a professor at Bethel to a pastor at Bethlehem. This is what he said he learned about God from Romans 9. > I will not simply be analyzed, I will be adored. I will not simply be pondered, I will be proclaimed. My sovereignty is not simply to be scrutinized, it is to be heralded. It is not grist for the mill of controversy, it is gospel for sinners who know that their only hope is the sovereign triumph of God’s grace over their rebellious will. (from The Absolute Sovereignty of God: What is Romans 9 Is All About?) God is way bigger than something you’re supposed to “solve.” He’s Someone who takes your breath away when you see a true glimpse of Him. His God-centeredness is a cause of wonder and mouth-stopping amazement. This is what Job said in Job 42:1-6 after he had been questioning how just it was for God to take away his health, wealth, and family: > Then Job answered the Lord and said: > > “I know that you can do all things, > and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. > ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ > Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, > things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. > ‘Hear, and I will speak; > I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ > I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, > but now my eye sees you; > therefore I despise myself, > and repent in dust and ashes.” When we’re granted the immeasurable blessing of having “eyes to see” the living God, in a mere moment all of our questions become moot. And this seeing can happen even today, not just after we die. We are being changed, as Paul said, from “one degree of glory to the next.” We get access to these glimpses, according to the Bible, by turning to the Lord. To me, that involves turning from something so that I may turn to Him. > But when one turns to the Lord, the veil [that blinds us from glory] is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:16-18) So if you’re struggling in trying to understand the infinitely high and unsearchable ways of God, start by turning back to Him and searching for Him with your whole heart. Trade your affections in other things for affections for Him. He has never disappointed me when I’ve sought Him in this way. Speaking of, I owe you guys a post on that Edwards sermon I referenced before. It totally applies here. Putting that into Things.app as we speak.