Oct 10 Jesus answered and said, ’I thank You, Father . . . that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes’ —Matthew 11:25

All of God’s revealed truths are sealed until they are opened to us through obedience. You will never open them through philosophy or thinking.

It seems I like arguing back at Chambers.  ;)  One could justifiably argue that the reason it took me so long to come to faith is because I was approaching it from a philosophical angle.  On the other hand, I think one could just as correctly argue (as I do) that that is the very reason I finally came to faith.  Most people, it seems, can just decide to have faith and they instantly get their Christian walk up-and-running (no pun intended).  Not so with me.  I approached it like I do everything else: from a practical, academic, show-me-the-research angle. Eventually that got me there and--when I tell the story--the reason I got there is because I approached faith in the only way I could, given how God made me.  He knew I'd eventually get there once that "hook" He'd implanted finally came into play. 

It is a matter of obedience, and once we obey, the relationship is instantly perfected.

I imagine it works this way for some people, I don't know if it necessarily did for me.  I was strongly influenced by the few personal testimonials I'd heard growing up where someone asked Jesus to come into their heart and they were instantly filled with a warm, peaceful feeling as the Holy Spirit infilled them.  Every time I asked Jesus into my heart I was left listening to the crickets chirping in the silence, no warm, fuzzy feeling inside. After a while that becomes discouraging.  Then I heard something just last year and if I'd have heard it years ago my walk would have started way back then, "faith is not an emotion, it's a decision."  In other words, it's not an emotional reaction (all warm and fuzzy inside) to having asked God to save us, it's a conscious decision to simply start following Jesus and sticking with it.  Eventually that's pretty much what I did: once I'd acquired enough answers to satisfy me up to a certain point, I decided to cast my lot with Jesus and take the rest on faith.  Sure wish I'd known years ago that you can make that second step the first step and save yourself a lot of frustration.  But . . . all in His time, not mine.

The only way you can get to know the truth of God is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. If you obey God in the first thing He shows you, then He instantly opens up the next truth to you.

This kinda reminds me of what James said in his Sunday sermon: through prayer, we discard our "selves" and allow God to fill us with His Son. The more we study and try to be holy, the less so we will be.  Yes, it's another one of those great paradoxes in the way God works versus the way we think He ought to work.