I’ve been really wrestling with trying to figure out who God says he is in the Bible, yet the more I study the more confused and honestly frustrated I get.
How do you balance Jesus’ words “Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find; knock and the door be opened to you” with Paul’s writings about not receiving saying “but he said to me, ‘my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
John 16:23-25 and 2 Corinthians 12:9
This one’s pretty easy for me Paul wanted the thorn in his side removed but God said no God never said that his answers are always going to be yes at all He did say he will answer you and sometimes we as parents tell our children know for their own good and they don’t understand that We are the same way We don’t understand why God does the things he does sometimes or why we get the answer that we get but we do receive an answer.
Hi Nathan, in all honesty I wouldn’t say those two passages are at odds with each other at all. It seems to be the case that those verses are taken out of context.
However, the discussion of who God is is an important topic of conversation. It’s a simplistic start as the conversation is a wide-ranging one that covers a number of different disciplines, but this link is a good place to go to help you to start to answer that question for yourself 🙂
HaShem’s essence is not revealed in scripture. Only his will is.
I think the ask, seek, and find is really about asking God for His presence, seeking His face, and finding forgiveness. I don’t think it is about a prosperity name it and claim it theology.
If you want to KNOW the Spirit God, MEET the man JESUS, a bonafide member of the Godhead. The express image of His person, the brightness of His glory.
Don’t be logical anymore.
God is revealed to a man. You can find Him.
Believe my friend, God says believe He never says wrestling with it He says belief with faith, and without faith there is no pleasing God Hebrews 11:6
For the first part I would suggest studying Job. Write it out yourself, do word studies by finding the original Hebrew word and the etymology of the word
Words have meaning, many meanings have changed over time. The meaning of certain words is also dependent on geographical and socio cultural areas. To best illustrate the point, Jesus and Peters discourse after Jesus’ resurrection. Instead of English love, Jesus said agape. Instead of English love Peter said phileo.
Sin is the greatest enemy. You want God? Forsake your sin.
God is YAHWEH,
He knew that we mortals can’t do anything for ourselves , unless he stretch His hospitable hands on us ,
How can we can we get something from him if we fail to ask?
How can we also develop an intimacy with him, failing to communicate with him oftenly.
James says “let him that lack wisdom ask for it, for our Lord will not rebuke us while asking.
I suppose , in the case of Paul , it means that before you get that grace of God, to be copious, you must have to be committed at first before .
After you have asked severally, atimes God delay it in other to see your efforts whether or not in serving him before proving Himself.
Therefore, his grace been sufficient shouldn’t be a yardstick of not asking whilst in need.
My brother, the Scriptures begin to open up to you when you start studying them as a holistic and progressive piece of revelation and stop piecing them into incoherent bits. In fact, the division of the Bible into chapters and verses is a relatively recent development. You see what I mean?
The Lord Jesus said “ask, seek and knock”, without apparent qualification, but he also inspired John to later explain in 1 John 5:14-15 that whatever we may ask has to be in line with the Father’s will in order to receive a positive response. Paul’s experience thus confirms the truth of the holistic teaching of Scripture on the matter.
You will wrest the Scriptures less if you pay more prayerful attention to their overarching harmony.
Study the scriptures in context. The two passages have very different meaning from two very different context. Surely you wouldn’t study a Shakespeare play with context to a 1800s context? That is a very basic and important thing to observe when studying anything especially when interpreting scriptures
These are simply the different perspectives of two different writers. Just use what you find most applicable.
This might help with the interpretation of Paul’s letter. You need to take care with some of the letters
I would suggest getting a good study Bible. It will have notes to help explain context, audience, original Greek or Hebrew meanings. I really like the MacArthur Study Bible. Also, for further explanation,you can look up sermons he has preached on those passages at GTY.org.
You need to read those verses in context. Christ is talking to disciples, he’s empowered, about knowing God. If you want to know the things if God, ask, seek, knock. Paul is referring to an ailment he personally disliked, being removed from him. God’s grace is sufficient whether we like our given circumstances or not…
Remember, context is everything.
Hi Nathan, look at it this way: From Genesis to Revelation God is a giver and us as creation is the receiver. God designed us this way out of love and with all His delight would like us to enjoy everything we are receiving from Him. We can ask, knock, and seek and as a Christian all these things that we possessed and will receive are all grace of God in our life. We are sinners before and deserved to be punished but God gave Jesus to die for us. Enjoy it! Share what you received also as part of your enjoyment.
Asking has to with and be in line with God’s will.
I don’t see these references as excluding one another, but rather complimentary and shedding light on one another. God is totally open to hearing our requests, and to providing for our needs. However we don’t always know what is best, or what it is we really need. Sometimes we have to rely on God’s discernment and wisdom concerning what we really need. That is His grace toward us, even when we are not wise enough to know what we should really be asking Him for.
Exodus 3
God is Sovereign and He is not our Santa Clause. Simply because we ask does not suggest God must comply or that God cannot say no or wait. Jesus says to ask but Jesus modeled prayer as well and said that we are to ask in accordance with God’s will for our lives.
If you truly understand who God is. Your physical brain can’t handle. Or the devil will deceive you that you can.
Please read the whole Hebrew 11. Then look at how it describes people from history. Then get back to verse 1-3 and look at what faith means in our daily lives. Even today.
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
John 21:25 KJV
So we must to think “which is greater: God or the Bible? “
Is not like paul said, I looked for God and came up empty. He recieved 2 things in that statement, grace and power.
Ask, seek and knock is receiving the Lord as you Savor and Lord, the other is prayer and in prayer we are to ask but it up to the Lord to decide if it good for us to have it. Remember God cares about your holiness, not happiness
God tells us to ask, seek, and knock – that way, we can lay our desires before Him, and He will respond and fulfill all of our needs.
But sometimes, what we ask for is not according to the will of God:
“Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (James 4:3)
And even then, it is in our benefit to ask, and seek God’s face, for in doing so, He will change our hearts to desire what He desires, and what is the best:
Psalm 37:4
“Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
Always read the verse in context.
Context, context, context. Also…. don’t attempt to read yourself into the scriptures. Steven Furtick does it all the time and that is NO way to understand the bible.
The thing that helped me when I began studying the Bible is what was my intent or goal in studying the Bible? Was it just an exercise of academics? Was it to gain knowledge to have the better argument? Though I felt I was gaining knowledge, and there is nothing wrong in having the knowledge of the Bible, I felt there was something more. Then the Holy Spirit asked me those questions. He said, “Is it head knowledge you are after, or is it heart knowledge?”
The whole purpose of the Bible is to cultivate an intimate relationship between God and yourself, and how to relate with others.
I learned that understanding what the Bible says often depends upon one’s nearness to God. Having said that, that does not mean if one fails to understand something in the Bible means they are not near to God. What I am saying is that the more intimate or closer one gets to God, the more understanding one receives.
It is a process, as a child grows and goes to school, he gains knowledge as he learns. You can’t expect a first grader to understand or know complex university level math, or of any subject. It is the same in the life of a Christian. No matter our physical age, when we first accept Jesus as our savoir, we are born again, as Jesus told Nicodemus. Paul inferred that we are to grow spiritually and start eating the meat of the Word, or Bible.
There are many times I fail to completely understand a passage, but I chew on it for awhile, then move on. What I’ve found is God reveals its meaning later, perhaps I wasn’t ready to understand it at that time?
Having that personal relationship with God through Jesus coupled with consistent prayer time, illuminates the scriptures and understanding comes from the Holy Spirit within the heart.
Another method I found that helps in understanding the Bible is to write down the passage in a journal. Write the passage and what you think it means, right or wrong. I have found when I do that, the Holy Spirit speaks to me as I write, and at times my original thought on a passage was off or wrong. Journaling helps.
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