I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. For, There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.

1 Timothy 2:1-6

Dear God, I wish I really understood you. I have nearly 50 years of things that people have taught me, Bible verses that sometimes contradict each other, and then the whispering sin my own heart that I use to try to mold a picture of you, but there are too many potential problems in all of that. I can receive bad teaching and not know it. I can misinterpret what Scripture is telling me. And you know how wrong I can be. And yet, this seems to be part of your plan for all of us working out our faith with you. You’ve left it intentionally vague.

Rich Mullins once said in an interview, “I don’t read the Bible to know truth. I read it to know God.” I blanched when I first heard that, but then it started to make sense. I THINK you are probably too big and complicated for me to understand, even if you explained yourself as clearly as you could. So your solution is to give us an idea of who you are and then allow us to continue to seek after you and, when we are ready, to reveal a little more to us.

Father, my fear in all of this is that I will go off the theological deep end and start to allow too much of my own sinful, imperfect mind to form my theology. So, please, Holy Spirit, guide me and direct me in the way I should go. Help me to recognize when it is you talking and when I am being deceived by Satan. Be glorified in my life.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen