1.3

The Invisible Way to the Invisible God

Different kinds of knowledge need different approaches to get them. We come to know what tastes we like by eating, or how to perform well by learning and practicing. Scientific knowledge comes from observing raw data with our physical senses and combining that with our reason to observe and interpret the object of study, its nature and patterns of being. But how do we approach a God who tells us His ways are unique and as far from our ways as the heavens are from the earth? Who can span such a distance to find Him? Where do we begin to know Him?

God’s way to know Him is both simple and elusive. It is the way of faith and not primarily by proof through our reason or senses, nor by emotional states or even ecstatic experiences of heavenly visions. Fundamental to our way to God, what alone can translate all other sources of knowing into a language that can hear God, is faith in Him. Although our senses and reason can apprehend many signs of God in His creation, it is only by faith that we can know Him who is beyond and over His creation

Another word almost interchangeable with faith is trust. We must trust Him to know Him as He truly is. This way of faith can never be justified or explained by reason or by any other aspect of creation. It is one of God’s many mysteries that He has determined our relationship with Him is decided by the texture of our hearts, whether they are hard and resist Him or whether they are softened by trust and can receive Him as their center. It is by faith that we discover our way to Him is trusting His way to us, His path of grace that brings us to Himself, a path that He alone can traverse and that He alone is

The central purpose of this book is to lighten and enlighten the way of pursuing God’s Sabbath rest. Therefore it must seek to understand in His way, which is of faith in Him. Proving the reliability of the Bible or the existence of God with human reasonings or demonstrations can’t ultimately bring us near the God of truth. Instead of insisting that God first prove Himself to our understanding and satisfy our expectations of Him, if instead we risk softening our certainties about Him and risk not knowing what we don’t know, if we allow the smallest seed of faith to trust God made us because He wants to be with us in all the changes of our lives that shake us every which way with endless gains and losses, joys and griefs. . . God’s faithfulness can begin to take root and manifest in us. God’s way of knowing Him is not by our reason but by His trustworthy life in us, His life that can be trusted to keep our whole life whole. Even “through the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4), He is with us

It helps to understand that faith appears elusive not because it is so inaccessible and alien to human nature but because it is in and with all life. Every thing has faith that propels and informs its direction and quality at every moment. Faith enables us to do life. The opposite of faith is doubt which, in its absolute form, paralyzes absolutely. Faith is our will’s invisible grip on life that moves and reveals us. Whether we believe in a God who loves us or hates us, in a god who is us, in no god, in angels alone, in human good, in matter only, in evolution or devolution -- whatever our spoken or tacit beliefs, however intact or fragmented, our unique faith uniquely informs all our ways of living. Our faith is so integral to living that we can’t distinguish what we believe from this moment. Faith is fundamental to all life. God's creation requires faith to keep it together. Being more conscious of what we believe and what faith we live deepens self-understanding and helps us decide if our faith is one that is worth having, if it is faithful and trustworthy

When we come to God with a faith that grows from and towards Him, we discover a compelling truth that no reason, justification, or physical proof can approach. We discover the glory of the One who anchors all creation in His grace that can open the eyes of our heart to see Him freely making and sustaining all things. God identifies Himself with a tautology because there is nothing that can identify Him outside Himself. “I Am Who I Am” (Exodus 3:14), He spoke to Moses. Nothing exists outside of God that can prove or justify Him. It is God’s design to meet us heart to heart only in Him, entrusting Himself to us as we trust and accept the truth of who He is without any extraneous objections. What we discover the more we know God, the more our heart receives Him, the more we hunger for Him and are satisfied by Him, is His redeeming rest that explains the form and substance of all His ways that are and aren’t in our life