arguing with God

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from John 11:1-54. Jesus is told that Lazarus is dying, but He doesn't go to him right away. Then, after a couple days, He does. When He tells His disciples that He plans to go to Judea, they balk. "Why do You want to go there?" they ask. "They were trying to kill You!" They didn't realize that Jesus didn't stay dead when you killed Him.

And we're tempted (rightfully so) to criticize the disciples for arguing with Jesus. Didn't they know Who He was?? Well, they did and they didn't. But even if they did, while arguing with Jesus is a losing proposition (since He's always right), it IS actually a good idea. And I'll explain why.

See, if we just blindly do whatever God tells us all of the time without questioning it, we're depriving ourselves of something. That something is seeing how the wisdom of God supersedes the wisdom of men. When we argue with God (even though we know we'll lose), we pit our wisdom against His plan. And when His plan comes to fruition, we see how it is better than what we had argued previously.

So it's GOOD to argue with Him - as long as we remain humble and realize when He's right and we're wrong. (All the time.)

God, thanks for inviting us to argue with You - so we'll appreciate how amazing You are.