No tame lion

Today in Contemporary Christian Belief we were discussing possible conclusions to the statement, “I would accept Christianity if…” The most challenging conclusion involved experience (feelings, direct communication, miracles). Often, people require God to give them “a sign” before they’ll believe in him. Sometimes God decides to answer said person with a sign, but usually he doesn’t. The problem with the logic of “I would accept Christianity if God does something for me” is that we cannot control what God does. He works in his own sovereign way. Dr. Corduan said, “I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade, but it’s up to God whether there is a parade or not.”

I’m learning from my Beth Moore study that faith must often precede vision. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” The Biblical examples of Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abraham are held up as models of this state of being. They lived in God’s promise by faith and did not require God to prove himself to them. In many ways, he never did. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance” (v. 13).

I’m no Bible scholar, so I could be theologically off-base, and, please, correct me if I’m wrong because I’m struggling with this. How can I follow a God who refuses to prove himself to me? There is absolutely nothing I can do to make God be real to me. He makes me wait on him and allow him to surprise me with breathtaking sunrises and mid-sob peace that defies understanding. I want God to move, I want him to come through for me, but then again maybe he is and it’s just not according to my demands. God is not house-trained to my expectations. That’s probably a good thing.