For Mother’s Day this past year, Jon and the girls gave me the gift of a Google Home. I am not even going to try and pretend that this did not become the new obsession around our house. Naturally, why wouldn’t it?! You can ask it anything and Google will tell you an accurate response: “Hey Google, how long and at what temperature should I bake chicken?” or “Hey Google, set a timer for 15 minutes.” You can even ask Google to play music; a general genre or a specific song. The girls join in the fun as well and ask Google to translate English words to Spanish so they can “speak like Dora”. As knowledgeable as it may seem, Google Home is a bit deceptive, because it makes you feel like you have all the answers and solutions to every problems in an instant. But Google Home is not perfect…
One evening after Jon and I put the girls to bed, we entered into a debate with our Google Home, which is an exciting Friday evening at the Penny house! We were asking Google who historical characters were and it typically gave us an answer from Wikipedia, which seemed to satisfy our curiosity. We continued to ask Google about different events and enjoyed getting caught up on our history lessons until we asked Google a question that it couldn’t answer. “Hey Google, who is Jesus Christ?” and I’m not kidding when I say that Google’s answer was, “Sorry, I don’t know how to help with that.” What?! Google knew about Buddha, Gandhi, it even knew all the apostles, but it didn’t know who Jesus Christ was. I was really frustrated, at first, and may or may not have raised my voice with Google, but then I had to remind myself, “Who was Google’s creator? Man.” and “Who is my creator? God.” This also reminded me of another truth. Google isn’t the source of all knowledge and wisdom and neither is man; only God is the source of all knowledge and wisdom. Colossians 2:2, Romans 11:33, Daniel 2:20, Jeremiah 33:3
All of this brought me back to a familiar story, one we read to our daughters last night. The story of the beginning, the story of original sin, the story of Adam and Eve and how they fell into the deception of wanting to eat from the tree of life, the tree of all knowledge, the tree that would give them as much wisdom as God, the tree that would make them like God, the tree which deceived them. Genesis 2-3.
I’ll be honest, I fall into the trap, frequently, of thinking I have all the answers. Even more so now that I have two kiddos constantly asking me “why”, which makes me feel like I am a living, breathing, Google Home, with all the answers to everything, all the time. This then feeds my pride and I downward spiral until I learn the lesson the hard way, that I don’t actually know the correct answer, and my pride is broken.
Like most of us, when I do a Google search on my computer, I typically click on one of the top three links. I never even consider clicking on the next page to see if there is a better response to my question, because lets be honest, that would take too much time. Google knows everything, right, so why wouldn’t the best solution be on the first page? But sometimes, Google doesn’t put the most accurate response on the first page, I need to dig deeper to find the truth. But my typical response, because I am busy, is to click on the first link. I find the answer to my question, which satisfies me, chalk it up as truth, put it in my heart and mind and move on.
There is some truth to everything we chose to believe, but it isn’t necessarily the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The only source of all wisdom, knowledge and truth comes from the Holy Spirit.
What’s my point? This kind of reminds me of what we tend to do with things we don’t fully understand or are difficult to process, through our own unbelief, in the Bible. We take verses we understand and are comfortable with to answer questions. We chalk them up as truth, store them in our heart and mind and then move on. But, sometimes we need to dig in deeper, take the time to click to the next page, have a conversation with the Holy Spirit and ask the source of truth to help shed light on the situation.
As believers, we are all given the gift of the Holy Spirit, God does not ever withhold that from us, Luke 11:11-13, but sometimes I am to busy to ask the Holy Spirit a direct question, or maybe I have unbelief that He won’t actually give me a direct answer. But I have learned that when I ask in faith, He does give me a direct answer. He might point me to another scripture to read which adds clarity, He may give me the answer while I am praying or he might provide the answer through another believer.
The quote I am going to leave you with comes from my Discerning the Voice of God Bible study by Priscilla Shirer:
“If the sin of Old Testament times was the rejection of God the Father, and the sin of New Testament times was the rejection of God the Son, then the sin of our times is the rejection of God the Holy Spirit.”
I am guilty of this. I have gone through seasons in my own life where I left the Holy Spirit out of it. I prayed, read the word, but didn’t consult with the Holy Spirit until I was smacked over the head. What have I learned? Things go much smoother when I am in constant communication with the Holy Spirit and life is much more peaceful!
