Knowing God

Knowing God is like knowing your father.

As a child, you spend the majority of your time around your parents. They teach you, nurture you, and generally impress upon you how you should live your life.

As a child, you continually ask questions, and push the boundaries, and in doing so, learn more about their characters, their standards, their morals and rules.

Basically, you find out what is expected of you, what you can get away with, and what is off-limits.

That's why, as you get older (or, more accurately, as you mature), certain questions no longer need asking. You've learned to discipline yourself according to the expectations and rules. You know they'd like you to help out around the house with chores; whether you do is another matter. You know they expect you to be responsible for homework, for practices, for fueling up the car; whether you are, again, is another matter.

Likewise, a born-again Christian goes through the same process in the spiritual level.

The idea that we are "born again", as Jesus said to Nicodemus, implies that we're infant Christians who need to grow to the "full measure of Christ".

Just as newborns need to be attended to constantly, and can consume only milk and baby food, and are weak and fragile and cannot stand on their own, so too newborn Christians need to be cared for, and taught the basics of our faith, and need to be reminded constantly of the hope in Christ.

Just as toddlers constantly ask "Why?" and wreak havoc around the house, and need discipline as the parents begin to mould them as individuals, and seek to help out around the house (although not always with the desired results), so too toddler Christians need to have their faith reinforced, and to have rules laid down for them as to what is acceptable behaviour, and to be given the first opportunities to serve God (though they may not reach the expected standards).

Just as teenagers are bound to question authority, and rebel against established rules in their quest for freedom and independence, so too Christians are prone to question God's authority, God's law, God's love, God's faithfulness, God's will, and indeed everything about God. Their failure to recognize that God has their best interests in mind - that, indeed, "萬事互相效力, 叫愛神的人得益處" - prevents them from experiencing at its fullest depth the bountifulness of God's grace.

Actually, I've once again strayed from the original intention of this post...

The point was... that I'm asking questions that, because of the amount of time I've spent with God, and because of my knowledge of God, I already know the answers to.

I know I shouldn't be asking for such things, because I know they fly in the face of God's will. I know I'm better off without them.

Is it wrong then to ask? Is it a sin? Or will it merely disappoint God?

Will asking continually somehow make God change His mind? Will pestering Him endlessly somehow soften Him up? Will He allow something less than optimal to take place if we want it badly enough? Will there be a happy ending? Or will He merely use it to teach us a lesson?

If I thought it was something even worth praying for... I would. But I really don't. I don't even honestly think that God will relent and let me have it my way even if I prayed my heart out.

So... why bother?