I think that Selwyn presents an excellent summary regarding his fourth life conviction: ‘that there is a great deal of mystery in life, and simply accepting this is better than (fruitlessly) striving to find explanations.’
Today, he says: ‘ … when God allows us to be engulfed in mystery and, despite our pleading, does nothing to clarify His purposes, we to tend to panic. Then, as mystery and silence draw our anxiety to the surface, we begin to realise how deeply entrenched is our inability to trust God, to throw ourselves more fully upon Him and learn what it means to really trust.’
For me, this is the crux of the matter – we live in a ‘scientific’ age that does not like mystery – and, it’s also an age that is afraid to trust. Can the average person now trust that they will have a durable marriage; can they trust in a life-long job or career;Â can they trust in a safe environment free from terror or natural disasters?
If we don’t want to trust in God, to whom can we go – ourselves? I’m thinking of the words from John 6:66-69; ‘From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the twelve. Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.”‘
Perhaps our inability to fully trust in Jesus is born out of a reluctance to fully believe in a loving and compassionate God? What do you think?
We can determine from Scripture that the mysteries that we need to understand have already been made known to us, just two examples:
- Romans 16:25; ‘Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclaimation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed are made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey Him’Â Â Â Â Â
- Ephesians 3:4-6; ‘In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.’
I’m convinced that any ‘mystery’ that persistently occupies our mind and our time, which is not already revealed in Scripture or is not resolved by prayer (that is, God is silent and does not provide an explicit answer) is a serious waste of our God given time and demonstrates a real lack of trust in God’s love for us – do you agree?
Being put in place
I think that Selwyn presents an excellent summary regarding his fourth life conviction: ‘that there is a great deal of mystery in life, and simply accepting this is better than (fruitlessly) striving to find explanations.’
Today, he says: ‘ … when God allows us to be engulfed in mystery and, despite our pleading, does nothing to clarify His purposes, we to tend to panic. Then, as mystery and silence draw our anxiety to the surface, we begin to realise how deeply entrenched is our inability to trust God, to throw ourselves more fully upon Him and learn what it means to really trust.’
For me, this is the crux of the matter – we live in a ‘scientific’ age that does not like mystery – and, it’s also an age that is afraid to trust. Can the average person now trust that they will have a durable marriage; can they trust in a life-long job or career;Â can they trust in a safe environment free from terror or natural disasters?
If we don’t want to trust in God, to whom can we go – ourselves? I’m thinking of the words from John 6:66-69; ‘From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the twelve. Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.”‘
Perhaps our inability to fully trust in Jesus is born out of a reluctance to fully believe in a loving and compassionate God? What do you think?
We can determine from Scripture that the mysteries that we need to understand have already been made known to us, just two examples:
I’m convinced that any ‘mystery’ that persistently occupies our mind and our time, which is not already revealed in Scripture or is not resolved by prayer (that is, God is silent and does not provide an explicit answer) is a serious waste of our God given time and demonstrates a real lack of trust in God’s love for us – do you agree?