Monday, July 30, 2007

Resolving the impossible

Dan Edelen is running up against Enlightenment hyper-rationalism in the church and wondering if any North American Christians really believe God can do the impossible:

Is God a fairy tale? Then why do we treat Him like one? Knowing adults wink at each other when surrounded by children who believe in Santa Claus, and sadly, it seems we do the same to people who believe that God is the resolver of the impossible. We’ve made the Lord of All into just another figment of the imagination.

Is it pride? It seems like it to me. We don’t want to have to explain why our involving God in a situation didn’t work for some untold reason. It might make us look stupid. And we all know the worst thing that can befall a self-respecting American, Christian or not, is to look stupid.

Pride it may be, and simple unbelief. As many times as God has resolved the impossible in my own life, still I struggle to believe at times that he will take care of us, his own. Maybe it's not such a bad thing that we struggle, because we're forced not simply to coast, but to decide and declare whether or not we'll really trust God.

And just so you'll know, Dan: Believe God for the impossible. And I'll join with you in believing for it.

2 Comments:

Blogger dle said...

Milton,

Thanks for linking to my post on wave-lookers.

Last year, I sought prayer about a tough issue from a fellow Christian I respect. When I laid out the circumstances, the first thing he told me was, "Well, you need to scale back what you hope to accomplish. What you need to do is...."

It got me thinking about how we qualify so many of our prayers and go the arm of flesh route on how we do things. Is God a God of miracles? Of course! So why do we pray such small prayers and then go off and do our own thing as if we'd never prayed to begin with? Then we go so far as to label that "maturity" when it may be nothing more than unbelief.

8:35 AM, July 30, 2007  
Blogger Milton Stanley said...

We're together on this one, Dan. I'm sorry your experiences have been so discouraging, especially when you're in need of prayer. Carolyn and I will continue to pray for God to work things out in your family's life. In the mean time, be encouraged, brother!

9:02 AM, July 31, 2007  

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