Introduction
UN Knowing
2 Timothy 3:16 ESV
Romans 8:26-27 ESV
Psalm 32:7-8 ESV
John 14:26 ESV
I John 5:14-15 ESV
UN Series
Today we begin a new series about the UN known things of God. By that I mean things we do not know.
In other words, things God has taught me that I didn’t know.
Scripture tells us we can rely on the Spirit of God to teach and help us…the first thing I had to learn is that my need for God is clear.
2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”
I had to learn that scripture is reliable, helpful, and trustworthy.
I had to learn that God the Spirit will teach me and will be my guide. The Apostle Paul, a scholar who was trained as a Pharisee clearly admitted he was desperately in need of God’s strength and help in prayer. Paul did not know.
In Romans 8:26-27 Paul wrote, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
David understood he did not know and his need for God was great.
He wrote in Psalm 32:7-8, “You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”
The Apostle John wrote the words of Jesus about Spirit of God who will help teach us things we do not know.
In John 14:26 he wrote, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
I don’t have to go very far to think of my own examples of failing in matters of faith.
The people who know me well know I am a praying person. Even when my children were small they knew Mommy needed time to pray. I knew I needed God.
They didn’t know in those days one reason I needed to pray because I knew very little about how to be a Mom. I was young when I had my children. Scientists now know that the human brain isn’t fully formed until around the age of twenty five. By that standard I gave birth to two children while I was not yet a fully developed adult. My third child came along not long after.
I prayed a lot about what I didn’t know how to do.
I prayed then and I pray now because I am aware of my desperate need for God.
I pray because I know God is God and I am not.
I pray because God gives me peace and contentment. I pray because God gives me answers. I pray because I love talking to God.
I’ve spent a good portion of my life listening to God. Even as a teenager I would ask God to speak to me. I wasn’t sure what that meant or what that would look like. All I knew is that I wanted to know God. I’ve shared that I had an earth shattering event happen when I went to a Billy Graham Crusade as a teenager. When I walked into Arrowhead Stadium that night it felt like the earth shook beneath my feet. After the message the Spirit swept me up and carried me down front. The counselor prayed for me that night, and I believe that many other people prayed for everyone who went down front after the message. I also know that my dad prayed for me after.
I’m not sure why but since that time I can’t get enough of God. I seek to be open to listening to God day and night.
At one point when I was in my 50’s before I went to Seminary I was part of a church that had Listening Prayer Classes. During that time I learned a lot about how to really listen and what to ask.
Then, my Spiritual Director during that time taught me how to be still. He encouraged me to ask and wait. I learned that I can ask God anything and God will answer.
I John 5:14-15 we read, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
Ultimately, I pray because I need God. I pray because want to hear God.
I pray because I am human. I pray because know I don’t know.
I am UN Knowing.
Today’s Spiritual Practice is: Recognize UN Knowing
Think of one thing you do not know and ask God for the answer. Listen and wait.
In God, Deborah
Comments