LUKE: YEAR OF OUR LORD (WEEK 14) - WHEN WE DON'T UNDERSTAND

We all have formed an image of God, or of another person, or ourselves after certain experiences. Perhaps your image of God was shaped by a particular preacher or book. Your image of yourself was most likely shaped by your peers, your parents, and the media. The image of others certainly is shaped by your interactions with people.

I want to look particularly at the image you may have formed about God throughout your life. There’s a reason that Commandment #2 given through Moses forbade any images made of our infinite and eternal God. For the Israelites, it was a matter of not engraving an image - but in my experience the idols we may worship falsely aren’t graven as much as they are embedded deep in our minds. And in order for us to get a better picture of God, those idols MUST be torn down so that we can relate to God much more accurately.

Let me ask you - have you got God figured out? You think you know all that He will allow to happen in your life, all that He will ask you to do, all the ways He will interact with His creation?

Or do you, like me, if we were to be honest, have some questions about WHY life is the way it is?

The Christianity I was taught as a young person seemed (at least in my mind) to discourage questioning God. Doubt was frowned upon, as it seemed like doubt was the opposite of faith.

But here’s the deal, Church. Doubt is a part of life. We believe in a God who is all powerful, all knowing, and all good - and yet He does things that knock us for a loop at times. It’s not really DOUBT that is the opposite of faith. The way the Bible authors talk about faith, the opposite wouldn’t be doubt, but a rejection of reality, which includes a lack of belief in God, but also disobedience and inaction.

Doubt can be likened to a hammer. Is it good - or is it bad? Depends on how you use it, right? Doubt can drive me away from a relationship with God — OR it can deepen my faith in a God that is at times too marvelous for me to comprehend.

So today I want us to study a passage where a person of amazing faith encounters a time of doubt, of questioning the plan of God, of living in the moment when we don’t understand.