Maybe it’s because we want so badly to be certain of God that we doubt Him so much. It seems counter-intuitive to believe that doubts can be the road leading us into deeper truths and a surer faith. All that is needed is courage to voice and explore them.

• Will You go with me on this life journey? “I’ll never leave you or abandon you.” (Hebrews 13:5)
• Will You stay with me when I fail? “I am God… A God of mercy and grace, endlessly patient—so much love, so deeply true—loyal in love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.” (Exodus 34:6-7 MSG)
• Who are You? The One who knows your name and looks for you in the middle of chaos. (Luke 19:1-10)

Perhaps another question we ask is, “Do You know what You’re doing?”

How often we subscribe to the notion that “what the world needs now is love, sweet love.” The implication is a love blindly encompassing its object. But love without wisdom has no weight. To be loved by someone who is impotent in the complexities of wisdom is like being surrounded by perpetual niceness. It’s love, without teeth. If loving presence is all sweetness and no substance, how can we possibly rely on it, let alone relax into it?

Dropping into Revelation 5, we find an unfolding scene of intense, heartfelt worship. The One seated on the throne pulls out a scroll. Upon seeing it, a great, thundering angel voice blasts the question, “Is there anyone qualified to open this sacred scroll?” No one stepped forward and the weeping…the despair began. The scroll contained the world’s emerging…the prophecies, the desolation, the redemption. No mere human would be worthy, in all respects, to know what to do with the information.

One of the Elders said, “Don’t weep. Look—the Lion from Tribe Judah, the Root of David’s Tree, has conquered. He can open the scroll, can rip through the seven seals.”

–Revelation 5:5 MSG

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah. The conquering Messiah. The One who has been ruling the affairs of people from the beginning and will rule all the way to the end. The relief in the room, in John the writer, is palpable. But imagine, he lifts his head to turn to the Lion and instead, comes face to face with the Lamb…slaughtered but standing tall.

Do you see the great picture? The conquering Messiah does not conquer by military muscle and strategy but through His sacrificial death. As C.S. Lewis said of the broken altar in Narnia, “there is a deeper magic at work here.”

We will never fully understand what is truly unfolding until we are in the presence of the Lion-Lamb. What is at work all around us right now is an eternal unfolding that began in a time when we did not exist, but which will finish when we are standing tall with the Lion-Lamb in whom we have believed for so long.

ACTION: For what complexities do you need the perspective of the eternal Lion right now? For what circumstances do you need to reaffirm that, despite evidence to the contrary, He does know what He’s doing? What does standing tall with the Lamb look like for you today?