Episode #92 We Can’t Figure God Out (and Why that’s Okay) Understanding God Part 1- Noticing God

Hey friend, thanks for joining me for another episode of Good God Talks. Today we're actually entering a kind of mini-series in the midst of our series on noticing God. I had recorded an episode that I was hoping to pare down to fit within our very time efficient podcast structure here, and I just couldn't do it. I realized that the topic of understanding God and understanding the Bible needed more time and warranted more exploration with God.

To begin with, the concept of understanding God and understanding the Bible is really tricky because we are so limited in what we can understand. God invites us to bring our whole selves to Him. That We can love him with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And so that includes growing in our understanding. But if we come to God and we come to the Bible wanting to gain a complete understanding, we're going to miss out. And we're starting from a faulty foundation because we can't possibly understand him fully.

The more I grow in understanding, the more I grow in my awareness of how much I don't understand. So we're just going to jump right in with a verse from Ecclesiastes 11:5.
“As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.” (Ecclesiastes 11:5)

Yeah, that's true. I do not know how a spirit comes into the body of an infant in their mother's womb. And in the same way, I do not know the works of God who makes everything.

And I thought I'd start here because this visual of infants growing into maturity is something that we see in 1 Corinthians 3, in 1 Peter 2, and in Hebrews 5. The Bible uses the analogy of infants that are fed milk because they're not ready for solid food. And milk represents the basic principles of God, the foundational truths that he offers us.
It's good to talk about this here because our limited understanding doesn't mean that we can't understand anything from God. And it also doesn't mean that we can't receive the good that he has for us. Even when we're not yet ready for solid food, we can take in milk. There are basic truths that God wants to share with us and as believers, we get to grow in maturity. That progression of maturity is not a problem to God.

And in 1 Corinthians 13, it talks about how we only know in part, there's only so much that we will know this side of heaven, so we have this awareness of our partial understanding that we can see some things dimly as in a mirror. That automatically infers that we don't have to live in a place of no understanding. He doesn't say, now you don't know anything. He says, now, you know, in part, and then you will know in full.

We even see this referenced in the description of what church leaders are to do and how they care for the body of Christ, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes… We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13-14, 15b)

We get to grow in our knowledge of Christ. We get to grow up into Christ who is the head, and we get to grow in our maturity.

The desire that we have to understand God, to understand the Bible, to know God and to know his written word, those are good desires and they're properly placed when we understand there's still so much that we won't understand.
God is beyond our understanding. He is not figure-out-able. And that's not a problem. And another thing that is not a problem Is the process that we go through to grow in maturity and to grow in understanding.

All throughout the gospels, Jesus asks his disciples and asks the people, do you still not understand? And he didn't give up teaching them. God offers us opportunities to know him, to grow as followers, to grow as disciples. And so when it comes to growing in understanding and noticing God in the Word, there will be times and places that this is hard for each one of us in different ways.

Maybe for you, you want to gain all understanding. I don't want to have question marks. I don't want to have mysteries. I want it to make perfect sense, and that's just not what God offers.

Maybe for you, there's a distraction to focus on solving life's problems. instead of seeking the knowledge of Christ first. We talked about that in episode 90.

Or maybe there's a different pitfall for you. Something else that makes it hard for you to wrestle through this desire to understand or maybe a lack of desire to understand, or a desire to know God, but not really a desire to know His Word.

Wherever this is hard for you, take a few minutes and reflect on that and then bring that into conversation with God. Admit to him, God, this is where this is hard for me. If you feel convicted to think again and choose a different course, tell him, “God, I, I don't want to operate this way anymore. I ask you to help me live this way instead.”

And here's the question you can use to continue that conversation with God:

God, this is where I struggle with limited understanding. What would you have me do next? I'm aware of this struggle. What do I do about it now?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

Connect with Jen on Instagram