Do you have God all figured out? Do you understand the way he works? Do you know exactly how he is going to answer your prayers? Do you even know for sure that he will? Are you shelfing the life you could be living and the purpose you could be walking in, waiting until you understand all of this? Do you feel like you’re disqualified because you don’t know everything yet?
Bob Goff puts it this way “We’re following a God we can’t see, for a lifetime we can’t measure, to a heaven we can’t comprehend, because of grace we didn’t even earn.”
Doesn’t that just sum up your life? Can’t see it, can’t measure it, can’t comprehend it, and didn’t earn it. And yet, this is exactly God’s design for you. He never wanted you to understand all of this. He never expected you to know everything. And he never thought for one minute you could earn it, that’s why he paid the price in advance for you.
I don’t know about you, but I thought after seeking God since I was 15, I would probably be like professional level Christian. I would have answers. I would know things. And I would be more certain. But y’all, I still question. I still wonder. I still read things in God’s word and feel conflicted by what I read the day before. When I pray, I still have a little part of me that speaks logic and says “for real girl, you think the creator of the Universe is actually listening to you right now?”
So, God prompted me to speak today to the one who is seeking, but not sure she is really finding. To the one who believes, but still really internally struggles with some unbelief. To the one who questions if her unbelief disappoints God and dismisses her from his promises. To the one who has been praying, but really isn’t sure God has any intention on answering.
Is that you? Is it okay if I tell you, that’s me. That’s me on most days. Some of the things I believe, I still question. Some of the things I’m counting on, totally don’t add up. Sometimes I feel 100% guided, and other times I feel like I’m trying to fly this thing alone. I don’t have it all together, and the truth is, I have no clue how to get it all together, now I’m wondering if God even wants me to get it all together, or does his Glory shine best in my scatteredness?
Yesterday I watched a video of one of my prized BIG Life girls share her testimony. It was her first time putting her story into words. A story of a life absolutely ruined by alcohol, and she knew she was to blame. Over and over again, she wrecked her own home and family, looking for something to fill her at the bottom of a bottle. This woman is now healed, restored, redeemed, and on her way to unleashing the good God always planned to do with all the enemy’s attack of evil in her life. I’m telling you there will be a book of the story of Catherine Cody one day. She will stand on stages and speak to crowds, and she will be used as the key to unlock the prison of many.
Catherine shared she did not know anything about this greater power than her, but she decided to fully turn her life over to his care. She didn’t know who God was, she didn’t know of the love of Jesus, she didn’t know how his redemption could possibly work over her sins and transgressions, but she just decided to lean in and trust it. She couldn’t name it, but she knew she could feel something. There, in a rehabilitation center, with a copy of Alcoholics Anonymous in her hands, she committed to spiritual progress over spiritual perfection.
Y’all THAT is it. We need to commit to spiritual progress and not get caught up in spiritual perfection.
You’re not dismissed from a personal relationship with Jesus just because you don’t understand how he works.
You’re not disqualified as a vessel carrying the powerful Spirit of God just because you cannot comprehend how that power really dwells within you.
God’s good plans for your life are not cancelled just because you don’t see those good plans in your current circumstances.
We’re in SPIRITUAL PROGRESS, not SPIRITUAL PERFECTION. The perfection part comes on the other side of this life. Perfection comes when we stand before the throne of the Almighty and we gain his perspective on this entire human experience. Until then, we are works in progress, and so is our understanding of all of this.
Don’t get hung up in all you don’t know and can’t understand. That’s all okay. Continue on with your doubt and uncertainties.
In Mark chapter 9, a father brings his sick little boy to Jesus and asks for his healing. Jesus replies, “everything is possible for those who believe.” And the father with all his doubts and questioning honestly says ““I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” And guess what, right there in the father’s unbeliefs, the boy is healed by Jesus!
2 Peter 3:18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
To grow in it means you’re not all the way there yet, and you’re not supposed to be. Your entire life’s journey is just growing in this grace and knowledge of God.
Go ahead and take everything you don’t understand, everything you’ve been questioning, everything that just doesn’t make sense to you, and lay it on the table. Go ahead, put it out there. You don’t have to drag that around with you. You don’t have to be burdened by this. Lay it on the table and say “Lord, I don’t understand, but I want to grow in understanding.”
Ahhhhh, don’t you feel a hundred pounds lighter just knowing little steps of progress, lined with doubts and uncertaintinties and wondering, are perfectly acceptable to God?!!!!
2 Timothy 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
Are you always going to get it right? Nope. But this scripture simply says “do your best”. Do your best to handle this correctly. And when you screw up, which you will, keep coming back and trying again. Return to God’s word again to receive grace and gather his provisions for each new day.
Another one of my prized BIG Life girls is battling cancer. And when I say battling, I mean like she’s already outlived the predictions. This woman’s faith is beautifully on display and if healing is granted based solely on faith it will be received, I don’t understand why she wasn’t healed a really long time ago. But that’s just it, we don’t understand. We don’t understand why this week’s MRI revealed growth on the tumors again. We don’t understand why God hasn’t swooped in with all of his undeniable power and just miraculously healed her. We don’t understand why his answers seem to be delayed. We don’t understand why this struggle continues and why she has to suffer in the process.
Is it okay to have no answers here? Is it okay to pray, but not know how or when God is going to answer those prayers? Is it okay to be frustrated in the wait and question the way? YESSSSSSS!
You know why? Because we are not in spiritual perfection. This hasn’t all been revealed to us yet. God doesn’t expect perfection of us this side of Heaven. We’re just here to make spiritual progress. And sometimes progress looks like not understanding a darn thing, questioning every ounce of it, yet choosing to still believe when it doesn’t make sense to believe. I do believe, help me with my unbelief.
That’s where I am on my journey. I still have a whole lot of questions. There’s a whole lot more I don’t understand than I do understand. But I still choose to believe. Believing is a choice. And we’re here to make progress in believing.
Here we go sisters, it’s time to take all our unbelief, all our unanswered questions, all that stuff that doesn’t make any sense, all the doubt we still have swirling around inside of us and just decide to do the best we can with it today. Progress over perfection. God will take care of the perfection part … that was never our job.
“We’re following a God we can’t see, for a lifetime we can’t measure, to a heaven we can’t comprehend, because of grace we didn’t even earn.” None of it really makes sense, and that’s really okay.
Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela
Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com
