SOURCE: https://latterdaysaintmag.com/come-follow-me-29-the-lord-had-called-us-for-to-preach-the-gospel-acts-16-21/
From Meridian Magazine Podcast
Scot
People say things like this:
I don’t believe in God anymore because my fervent prayer wasn’t answered. This assumes many things. That you know better than He does what will be good for you. That He is stingy or hard to reach. That He doesn’t regard your needs. That His love is imperfect. That His purpose is to be a cosmic bellboy instead of lead you back to Him.
People get mad at a God they’ve made up, assigning him flaws, emotions and short-sightedness.. They think He must be like their parents or other people that they may have known. They limit and bind Him by their own limitations in understanding.
Maurine
Sometimes when people turn from the Lord, they are really turning from their own imaginings of what and who God is. I remember as a little child, not knowing very much about who God was, so when I prayed I imagined my neighbor next door. He had given me a doll and I thought he was very kind. You can see that the God I was praying to was a very limited God.
Paul said in Romans 10:14: “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”
Scot
We learn in the Third Lecture on Faith
2 Let us here observe, that three things are necessary, in order that any rational and intelligent being may exercise faith in God unto life and salvation.
3 First, The idea that he actually exists. We are not praying to a statue or a rock. God actually exists He is a reality.
4 Secondly, A correct idea of his character, perfections and attributes.
Without a correct idea of his character, perfections and attributes, we really can’t know whom we worship. We might as well be worshipping an unknown God.
Once in awhile we hear someone say that their testimony took a hit because they didn’t have a particular prayer answered.
5 Thirdly, An actual knowledge that the course of life which he is pursuing, is according to his will.—For without an acquaintance with these three important facts, the faith of every rational being must be imperfect and unproductive; but with this understanding, it can become perfect and fruitful, abounding in righteousness unto the praise and glory of God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maurine
If we really know that He exists, if He has revealed to us line upon line pieces of His nature, so we can begin to comprehend Him, if we seek to live the life he has prescribed, then He is no longer an Unknown God to us. The greatest privilege of all eternity will be to see Him face to face.
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