Well-known educator, Thomas Sowell, has said, “It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” By those criteria, I must be very knowledgeable, because the list of things I don’t know grows longer every day. I’ve mentioned before that when I was in my early teens I thought I knew everything worth knowing and I was eager to share all of that knowledge with anyone who would listen. I think it is the experience and wisdom that has come with age that has led me to awareness of my ignorance.
How has this affected my Christian life and my relationship with God? Although I’ve learned to develop very strong relationships with other people, the closer I become to God through His word, His Son and His Spirit, the more I realize that I have barely scratched the surface of His love, mercy, grace and power. At age 11, I became aware that God loved me while my sinful nature made me unlovable. He sent His Son to die in my place so I could be dead to sin and given new spiritual life by accepting that gift of salvation and following Jesus. He doesn’t just love me – He loves the whole world and doesn’t want anyone to perish, but he wants us to love Him and worship Him because that is what we choose to do. His love is unfailing and has sustained me all of these years. The love I feel here is just a tiny fraction of the love I will know and feel in His presence and kingdom.
His mercy and grace have been manifest in my life. His mercy has saved me from the punishment I deserve and His grace has blessed me with so much I don’t deserve. The protection God has provided me and the blessings He has lavished on me for the last 78 years (He knew while I was still in my mother’s womb that I would become His child) have been amazing. Although I experience God’s great mercy and grace every day, they are just a small sample of what lies ahead for those who follow Jesus Christ to the end.
God’s power is on display all around us. He spoke everything into existence. But I have also seen His power at work in answered prayer. Through the prayers of my brothers in Christ as they laid hands on me, God’s power healed me from chronic sciatic pain six years ago. Just recently, God’s power stopped the hemorrhaging of a friend in response to the prayers of family and friends (including me) hundreds of miles away. God’s power is not limited by time and distance. He created them and exists outside of them.
My finite mind cannot comprehend God’s full, infinite glory. Paul put it this way, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) When that day comes when I will know the full extent of God’s power and glory, I will drop to my sound knees and then prone on my face before Him in praise and worship,