Who Can Comprehend?
There’s a few things I find incomprehensible. For instance, video phone calls.
I’ll never understand how I can sit on my porch in South Carolina and talk into a small handheld contraption that transmits a live image of me to a satellite in space.
The satellite instantly sends my live image to both of my two daughters’ phones 4,677 miles away in Hawaii. When they answers, their live images instantaneously arrive in my phone.
What?
How is this possible?
Even the talking part is incomprehensible to me. How does our brain tell our vocal cords what vibrations to make?
And how do our bodies turn those into words other people understand? All without our having to think through the process.
I may find video phone calls and how our bodies work incomprehensible, but not everyone does.
God, on the other hand, is beyond the ability of any of us to fully understand.
God is Incomprehensible
Incomprehensible—the inability to be completely understood.
God is beyond our ability to fully understand Him. If we combined all the brilliant minds in history into one super brain, it wouldn’t be enough to comprehend all God is.
To think we could comprehend God is like swimming in a pool and thinking we now understand the ocean.
God is unique unto Himself. No one and nothing is like Him.
For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
~ I Corinthians 2:11
To describe what God is like, we’re forced to grab images we can understand to explain the God we never can.
But beware. In our efforts to understand God, we might then reduce Him to an image we can grasp but then is no longer a true reflection of God. He’s not like us. He’s not like mankind.
Our best attempts to describe God produce words such as “appearance” and “like.” The Bible uses these words:
As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.
~ Ezekiel 1:28
If We Can’t Comprehend God, Should We Even Try?
Absolutely, we should try.
God wants us to know Him. He’s given us the Bible to teach us about Himself and His salvation.
The Bible is the best place for us to learn about God. It’s Him speaking directly to us through His Word.
While God has revealed much to us, He keeps some things a secret for His good purposes.
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever.
~Deuteronomy 29:29
Even though our limited and finite minds will never be able to fully comprehend our infinite God, what we can understand is enough to hold us firm in the fiercest storms and lead us to salvation. We can trust Him with “the secret things” that “belong to the Lord” and embrace the “the things that are revealed” through His Word and Jesus Christ.
Understanding God is Incomprehensible Makes a Difference in Our Lives Today
Like all of God’s character traits, understanding that He can’t be fully understood makes a difference in our lives today.
For some, understanding and accepting this is a stumbling block. For others, it’s a path to peace.
Some people refuse to believe what they can’t understand. This was my husband—at first.
When college friends first introduced Larry to Christ, he said he refused to trust what he couldn’t understand.
During his senior year, his friend Karen shared a verse with him:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
~ Proverbs 3:5-6
God used this verse to open Larry’s eyes to the Truth and give him spiritual sight. Larry realized his finite ability to understand an infinite God would always be limited.
If God were small enough to be understood, He wouldn’t be big enough to be God.
After meditating on Proverbs 3:5-6, and the gospel Karen had shared with him multiple times, Larry humbled himself before our holy God.
He confessed his arrogant attitude toward God and surrendered to Jesus Christ.
Don’t let God’s incomprehensibility be a stumbling block. Let it be a springboard to a life of faith.
Enjoy Peace Even When You Don’t Understand
When we rest in what we know and don’t fight over what we don’t, we can experience peace in normal everyday life as well as in the midst of heart-wrenching trials.
I don’t have to understand why God wants my daughters to live 4,877 miles away right now. I only have to trust Him.
He knows my heart and how I miss them while they live in Hawaii. And He cares.
He’s with them always. He can reach them no matter where they go.
And He knows how all this fits into His bigger picture for our good and His glory.
[bctt tweet=”If #God were small enough to be understood, He wouldn’t be big enough to be God. #GodIsIncomprehensible”” username=”@jeanwilund”]
God gives us what we need to know when we need to know it.
Let’s not confuse wants and needs.
We want all the answers, but we don’t need them.
We need to trust in the One who understands all.
When we accept and rest in His incomprehensibility of God, our lives enjoy a level of peace most never experience.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
– Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB
What God’s Word Says About the
Incomprehensible Nature of God
All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
~ Matthew 11:27 NASB
♦
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
~ Romans 11:33 NASB
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Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised, And His greatness is unsearchable.
~ Psalm 145:3 NASB
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“Can you discover the depths of God?
Can you [by searching] discover the limits of the Almighty [ascend to His heights, extend to His widths, and comprehend His infinite perfection]?
“His wisdom is as high as the heights of heaven. What can you do?
It is deeper than Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead). What can you know?
“It is longer in measure [and scope] than the earth,
And broader than the sea.
~ Job 11:7-9 AMP
♦
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
~ Isaiah 55:9 NASB
God may be incomprehensible, but He’s also knowable and approachable.
Seek God with all your heart. When you come to know Him as He reveals Himself in each of His character traits, He’ll change your heart.
You’ll enjoy peace and confidence no matter what that you can fully trust Him, even if you can’t fully comprehend Him.
[bctt tweet=”The more I come to know #God the more I understand I can fully trust Him, even if I can’t fully comprehend Him. #KnowingGod” username=”jeanwilund”]
