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The Zig-Zag Nature of the Unexpectedly Unexplained

By: Dr. Skip Myers
web posted May 15, 2006
Edgefielddaily.com columnist

What would your life be like if you could only experience what you completely understood? Everyday we enjoy things we can’t explain. I’m not sure exactly how that cooling breeze hits me when I’m cutting grass, but I’m glad it does. My car gets me from point A to point B and I’m not knowledgeable about the computer systems working for that to happen and yet, I still get where I am going. (Of course, with the price of gas I might just become more familiar with how my feet work when pedaling a bicycle.)

Our lives would be greatly limited if we had to understand everything we experienced. Now granted, our minds would be greatly expanded if this was the case but what we experienced would be dependant upon what we were able to comprehend. So much of what we enjoy each day falls into the realm of what we cannot explain and what we don’t fully understand.

I am constantly amazed at God! And I am amazed that there are people who truly feel they have Him completely figured out. I’m not so sure they actually have Him figured out as much as they have placed Him in a box so that they can control the relationship. While God never acts outside of the realm of His nature described in the Bible, He is God! He can do what He wants to do. He can give us what He knows is best rather than what we believe to be best. He can answer prayers and direct our lives according to His perfect will and He doesn’t have to have our permission to do something outside of the box.

Putting God in an understandable box greatly limits our experience of His awesome nature. Allow me to illustrate this using as an example the activity of prayer. I understand some of the basic tenants of prayer. It is the intimate pouring of our lives out before a Holy God who actually hears and responds to our lives. Prayer is something the Lord expects me to do because of the faith I have in Him. I know that prayer is answered and that it makes a difference.  I know prayer changes my life and reveals the possibilities of God greater than any other spiritual activity. These are just a few of the things I do know about prayer.

But as much as I think I know about prayer, the more I grow spiritually the more I realize I don’t understand about the intricacies of how prayer works. It is at that moment I come to realize I am trying to control the relationship and put God in a box. I actually tell God how I want the prayer answered and expect that to be the way He answers. It is fine for us to tell God what we need and what we would like Him to do but it greatly limits our experience of Him if this is all we are expecting. He is God! Don’t box Him in! Leave the maintenance and the answer of our prayers to His love for you.

One of the most remarkable prayers in all of the Bible is found in Ephesians 3:14-21. I encourage you to become well-acquainted with this prayer. It will expand your relationship with the Lord by expanding your realization of just what it means for Him to be God. So many people pray and look for only what they have requested from God as if He is a glorified, personal Prayer Shopping Network. And when the answer they are looking for doesn’t come, an entirely new rush of doubt and confusion occurs. Guess what, He did answer. He just answered outside the box you prayed in. You missed experiencing God because you were wanting Him to zig when what was best for you was for Him to zag. Listen to Ephesians 3:20-21

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think; according to the power that works within us; to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

If you want to experience more of God being God, keep learning and growing but understand you will never know it all. Keep praying when the answer you wanted doesn’t come. Ask Him to show you where He is moving outside the box you may have made His home in your life. In doing this, you will experience the glorious nature of an awesome God who will not settle by giving you the zig you are looking for when a zag is what you truly need.

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