I was reading the account of the conversion of Saul in Acts. You remember that. He was commissioned to go to Damascus to arrest and imprison Christians, "breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord" (Acts 9:1-18). On the way he was knocked to the ground by a divine light and Jesus got hold of Him. Blinded, they led him into Damascus where he prayed without food or water for 3 days. Then God went to Ananias and told him to go to such and such a location to give Saul back his sight. I love Ananias's response. When God showed up, he answered, "Here I am, Lord" (Acts 9:10). But when the "Lord" told him what to do, he said, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on Your name" (Acts 9:13).
I can see God now. "Wait ... what? Hang on, Ananias, let me check my notes. 'Street called Straight' ... check, 'Saul' ... check, 'man of Tarshish' ... oh, hang on. My bad, Ananias. I got the wrong guy. It was supposed to be a guy named Saul from Tarshish, not Tarsus. Thanks for pointing out my error. Whew! That could have been bad for you, couldn't it? Nice catch! Thanks again."
I jest, of course, but what did Ananias expect? Did He think the One that he recognized as "Lord" didn't know what He was doing? Did he think there was some mistake? Did he think he needed to enlighten God? To his credit, when God told him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine ..." (Acts 9:15-16), Ananias complied. But what was he thinking when he brought up the objection?
We do this, don't we? "But ... God? Are You sure You know what You're doing? Are you aware that I am encountering a (fill in the blank with whatever perceived disaster you wish -- disease, loss, trial, hardship, pain, disappointment, etc.)?" We do not seem to leap to, "Well, You're God. You're too wise to be mistaken and too good to be unkind. You walk me through this and I'll go with it" right away. Why? What do we expect? Is God wrong? Is He blind? Misinformed? Incapable? Just mean? What aspect of God's perfections are we missing?
I put "we" in all that because I'm guilty of it myself. I'm not (merely) pointing fingers. But let's work on not being an Ananias who questions God's intelligence or power and work on being an Ananias who goes and does what God says despite how it might appear. We who know God's character have cannot lose walking into dark places holding His hand.
3 comments:
I guess you have a point; If God tells us to do a thing, why should we question it?
The problem is compounded by the fact that we seldom have an encounter with God like that.
i can make a case that we should spend more time in prayer, more time in His word. then we should have a greater sensitivity to his presence and his leading. but guess what? its like this " Are you sure you want me to spend more time in prayer?" so i got that going....
Indications are that God doesn't mind us asking questions. Sometimes it's okay (like Mary when told she would have a child) and sometimes it's not (like Zechariah when he was told they'd have a child). Questions for clarification or information seem to be fine. Questions like "What are you, God, an idiot?" probably won't be.
so it is ok to seek clarity? because in this day and age we are bombarded with information about what God wants us to do. listen to one station and the pastor says one thing, then on another station the pastor is saying something different. my brain just wants to be in a quiet place. i just take it out of the jar and leave it in a cool dry place..
truth be told; for the longest time, i just needed to know that He loves me. and now that i do know, i can be still. i don't feel quite so restless. i don't feel like i need to know all the answers anymore. but it would help if i could be just a little smarter that Stan, that way i could be a more spiritual; but we know that's not going to happen...
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