Can you believe that people think they know better than God does? It’s quite an amazing idea that people should trust their own ideas and reject what God says. It’s like a patient telling a medical specialist that the specialist can’t possibly know better than the patient.
Mind you, that kind of arrogance is quite common at times. Many a mechanic has been told what problem to look for in a car when the issue was something quite different. Maybe it’s part of our make-up to think we are experts on things and can figure them out.
When it comes to God and what God knows and what God says, it is common for people to reserve the right to decide whether God is right or not.
You might hear people say, “I don’t think that Bible truth applies in this case!” Or, “I don’t think a religious approach is appropriate.”
Wisdom from God is seen by many as just one of a range of ideas we can draw from. We might compare it or mix it with the latest pop psychology, or what we have observed in life, or what some supposed expert has said. By taking that approach we ignore the idea that God Knows Best. Instead we insult God and His wisdom, as just another thing to put in the mix.
Church attenders can be as bad as others at ignoring God. I am often amazed at how many Christians will live quite contrary to what God requires, without giving it a thought. Instead of humility, we see pride. Instead of repentance, we see people claiming right to do whatever they are doing. Instead of forgiveness, we see retribution demanded. Instead of yielding to God, we see people living independent, self-focused lives. Instead of loving God’s word, we see people who love entertainment or diversion. Instead of loving fellow Christians, we see people who close their heart and their world to those around them.
In these and a multitude of other ways we see Christians living as if God does not know best, but they know what is best for themselves.
So let’s stop and consider the fact that God Knows Best. God designed us and designed our world and created our purpose for existence, so, quite obviously, God does know far more about us and and what is good for us than we will ever know.
God also exists in the spirit realm, so He sees and understands things that are beyond our natural world and thus outside our comprehension. And God lives outside of time, so He knows the future and the past, while we are limited to what we can make of the present and what we remember of the past.
God also understands you better than you will every know yourself. He knows what is good for you and what is bad for you, while you only have your own ideas of those things. My mother once took a photo of me as a tiny infant, sitting in the chicken yard. My mother told me I would sit there and eat chicken droppings. On another occasion, when I was too young to remember, I drank kerosine and had to have my stomach pumped out. On those occasions I obviously thought consuming those things was a good idea.
Those things you feel keen to pursue and consume in your life may be about the same as chicken manure when seen from God’s perspective. If you think you know best you will persist in things that are not good for you and ignore advice that could really help you.
Another problem we have with what God knows is that it so vastly above what we know that we can think it is irrelevant, or inapplicable.
“To the degree that the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9
A child might think about their choice of things to do based on what is ‘fun’. That’s their level of thinking. A parent or carer will think about what is ‘safe’ and what is good exercise, and what is good for developing cooperative skills in playing with others. Those thoughts are beyond the understanding of the child.
If an adult challenges a child to change what they are doing the child might well respond, “But this is Fun!” They revert to their preferred grid of reference.
You too will revert to the grid that makes sense for you, even if your understanding is very limited. Sadly, you will hold to your limited view of the world and what is good or bad, despite the wisdom you need.
We all have preferred focus in life, and we make choices to serve our self-will. If a person has chosen to be lazy, for example, they will find excuses to allow them to avoid doing things.
“The lazy man is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can give good reason.” Proverbs 26:16
So, you are likely locked in to a whole bunch of ways you want to stick with. When God speaks into your life you may well think His ideas don’t make any sense in your world. The truth is more likely that you live in a grid of reference that ignores things you really should comprehend.
The bottom line, however, is a matter of faith, since faith is the basis of our relationship with God. When a child trusts their parent they will do what they are instructed to do, without demanding an explanation, confident that the parent’s advice is right, even if they don’t like it or understand it.
If we had full faith in God we would carefully look into God’s Word and apply what God is saying, even when we don’t understand it, living by His guidance and values, despite our ignorance and that we would never in our own choice have gone that way.
Every time you think you know better than God you are acting in pride, and you are insulting God. What’s more, you lock yourself into your small world values, and miss the wisdom, blessing and protection God designed you for. And you are abandoning faith, not living by faith, but by your own mind and will.
I challenge you to open your heart to God and to His Word and to stop ignoring it, filtering it, mixing it with worldly ideas, or picking and choosing what you will accept. I challenge you to step into the larger world of grace and blessing God has for you, by you humbling yourself, trusting God, and obeying Him, because you have decided, God Knows Best.
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