“Into the Light” -Thinking Chair Inspiration….-

     I was sitting in my “thinking chair” up in my bedroom just processing my thoughts for the day and having a little quiet time with God, when a random scripture popped into my head. 

“However, as it is written: -No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him – but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.  The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.”

-1 Corinthians 2:9-10

So this verse comes out of no where and I read it and the study notes that coincide with it.  In the notes it said to read Romans 11:33-36, which is the “doxology” that Paul wrote at the end of chapter 11.  I flipped the pages of my bible back towards this verse and read as follows….

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His Judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord?  Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever! Amen”

-Romans 11:33-36

There is a pastor from a church down in Smurna and I occasionally listen to some of his sermons.  Every once in a while he’ll ask the audience to take out there bible to mark a few things in it because it’s ”our text book for life”. So I want to invite you now to do the same thing. Take out your ”text book for life” and pen and get ready to mark a few things down. Even if you don’t want to mark your bible I would encourage you to take some notes on a separate sheet of paper. 

So now that you have your bible out, look the previous verses up for yourself and read through them again.  Here are a couple thoughts for you.

We have no idea what God has planned for us and we can’t possibly comprehend the way He works.  God’s plan is so Divine so complex it goes right over our heads.  It’s like a math problem that no matter what angle you come at it from, it just doesn’t make sense.  The other thought is that God doesn’t owe us anything.  He is not the one in debt for anything we have EVER done for Him.  Not only is the way He treats us beyond fair it’s incomprehensible why He would do it for us.  “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” We can’t understand it and we never will.  We can’t even dream or imagine the things He can do, He can create or that He will do for us.  We don’t deserve anything for any amount of work we do for Him, it’s only out of the powerful grace, love and mercy He has for us that we do.  We are sinners, we can’t even follow God’s commands for us half the time.  How can we even think about deserving anything HE gives to us?

So if you’re underlining or taking notes stop here and underline, “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” (3rd sentence in the Romans Passage) and think about that.  How can we possibly predict or be prepared for what God has planned for us.  We can’t….we can’t know His mind or His thoughts.   The second thing I want you to underline is verse 35 in Romans 11 - “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay Him?” - We don’t deserve anything that He has given us and we never will.  What He does for us is not because of anything we have done or ever will do…..He does it because HE LOVES US.  Write that down next to that verse. 

My next thought then for you is how we are letting him lead our lives. Read both of these verses and think about that a little bit.  Then write down your own thoughts.

“…How unsearchable His judgment is, and His paths beyond tracing out!” -Romans 11:33

 “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead.  You’re not in the driver’s seat- I am.”  -Luke 9:24 (The Message)

“….No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him…” -1 Corinthians 2:9

This is my final thought for you….How can we possibly think that we can have God as our Lord and Savior and not let Him have the reigns to our life?  “His paths are beyond tracing out! And our minds have never conceived what God has prepared for us!”….There is no way we can expect to follow His path for us with out letting Him lead 100 percent, because if we only let Him lead some of the time we are going to end up wondering and not knowing which turn to take.  I think both Romans 11:33-36 and 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 are powerful verses.  I encourage you to read over them, mark them and come back to them over the weekend and during the week and remember this….God is too big to imagine, His love so abundant we can’t compare, His wisdom so insurmountable we can’t comprehend, His plan so detailed and perfect we can’t even touch it, SO AMAZING we can’t describe!  “TO HIM BE THE GLORY FOREVER!  AMEN!!!” 

 “Then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it.”

                                                                -Ecclesiastes 8:17