Satisfying the Mind
This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. — Philippians 1:9–10 NIV
Faith is not a mindless leap into the unknown that’s too hard for us to fathom. Faith enables reason to go beyond its human limitations.
Faith is not a simple result of reason; it is reason submitting to the truth of Scripture, which is saturated with and enlivened by the Holy Spirit of God. There are mysteries of faith that lie beyond my human understanding, but I believe them because they are rooted in the strength of God’s Word. I don’t pretend to understand the mystery of his ways, but Scripture describes God in ways that satisfy my mind.
Reason is a gift of God. It speaks to that God-placed center within us all that recognizes truth. We choose to believe that truth. We choose to embrace that truth. And we choose to live by faith, which is trustworthy.
I am not advocating an academic or sterile approach to our faith, but I am thrilled that it can stand up to scrutiny. Faith produces in us responses that go far beyond our scrutiny once our scrutiny is satisfied.
— Marilyn Meberg
Excerpted from A Grand New Day © 2008 by Thomas Nelson. Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Used with permission. All rights reserved.