“Bottom line, I had read the Scriptures looking for anything
that might support my own interests and desires and would allow me to live in
the illusion that I was in control. I had become frighteningly like the
Pharisees who were, in fact, the best Bible students of the first century, yet
in the process they missed out on knowing Jesus. Jesus read them accurately
when he said, ‘You search the scriptures because you think that in them you
have eternal life… Yet you refuse to come to me to have life’ (John 5:39-40).
Like the Pharisees, I was more interested in security than intimacy” (p. 120).
I suspect we’ve all been guilty of this at times. We search
the Scriptures for answers to our questions; looking for peace, joy, and hope; seeking
guidance and purpose; researching a sermon topic; maybe even looking for
excuses for our sin and weakness. But how often do we go to Scripture simply
seeking to know God better, or more specifically, to find our life in Jesus
Christ? We can be filled with facts about God and about the Bible and yet never
know the One who gives us eternal life.
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with having a good
knowledge of the Bible. Sometimes you have to absorb the bare facts before you
can begin to interpret their meaning and understand the bigger picture of what
God is doing in and through our world. But if we never get beneath the facts,
we can miss out on the relationship with our Savior. We may even become one of
the many church-goers who never truly become Christians.
For myself, I know I tend to look to Scripture (and plenty
of other books) for answers to my problems, often forgetting that Jesus Christ
is really the only answer. A couple other quotes from Anderson:
“God appears to equip people for service while they struggle
through places of sorrow and suffering” (p. 164).
“Each day it’s absolutely crucial for me to listen for God’s
voice, affirming that I am God’s beloved child. Only then can I resist the
temptation to reinhabit my false identity. Only when I am listening to God’s
voice, and not my own, am I set free from having to prove to the world (or to
myself) that I am worth loving, because God has already, repeatedly, affirmed
his love for me” (p. 176).
If I were God, I probably would have written the Bible as a
self-help manual. “Here are all the instructions you need to follow to get from
birth to eternal life. Now get to work.” Instead, God says, “Here’s what you
need to know about Me. Now trust that I’m in control.” We try to state our case
for why we need more information—“Just trust Me.” We comb through Scripture for
some hidden code we might have missed—“Just trust Me.” We plead for a change in
circumstances or feelings—“Just trust Me.” We look for someone else to give us
love, affirmation, and direction—“Just trust Me.”
Whether we believe it or not (and sometimes it’s very hard
to believe), God is in control and He knows what He’s doing. The question is whether
we know Him well enough to trust Him when life is hard, confusing, or dark.
Like little children, we should have the confidence to hold His hand and go
where He leads. But more often than we’d like to admit, we pull our hand away
and sit down and pout. When was the last time God carried you, kicking and
screaming, out of the candy aisle and home for a good meal and a nap? We
recognize the immaturity and self-centeredness of children, but are we really
much different?
I don’t think it is any mistake that Scripture calls us “children
of God” many times. We aren’t independent, self-sufficient, adult heirs of the
Father, but dependent, needy, often confused, little children. May we learn to
trust our Father, who really does know best.
“Those who know Your name put their trust in You, for You, O
Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You” (Psalm 9:10).
