The More you know....

The more I learn, the more I realize that I know so little. I have completed my first week in my Systematic Theology II class and I leave there every day with my head spinning. I began to become overwhelmed today in class because I thought I at least had a grasp on some truths of the Bible, but I have come to learn that things aren’t always as they appear in the Word. So, the thought ran through my mind, “Well, what is the point by learning anything new if I keep realizing that there is still so much out there to learn”. Then I realized that type of thinking was paralyzing me. We as humans will never get to the point where we know everything about God, because we…..are….not…..God. That doesn’t mean that we should stop trying to learn, it just means that we should be open to our ideas being challenged and working on sharpening our understanding of God and His creation.

This concept can also be applied in other situations. Sometimes we get discouraged because someone may seem to have it easier and/or better than we do (aka “The grass is always greener on the other side” complex), and so we get discouraged and tell ourselves that we will never be as good as them or we start to envy the things that they have or the things that they are able to do. This is our natural tendency, and it gets us into trouble. In Mark 7, Jesus is talking about what makes a man clean or unclean. He says that such things as malice, arrogance, and envy can come out of a man’s heart and make him unclean. So, our natural tendency (our flesh) is the thing that we need to fight against to become more like Christ. The last time I looked in Galatians 5, envy was not in the list of the fruits of the spirit but it is in the list of the deeds of the flesh. How many times will it take us to learn that our flesh is in constant battle with the spirit, and to walk in the spirit, we need to realize the battle and be prepared to fight against our flesh. Sheesh this is hard stuff! But yet it is so simple…..