Well, before concluding my thoughts on the relevance of experience to our beliefs, I thought I would clarify a little bit on this. Or, more precisely, kind of show what I wasn't trying to say... it seemed as if I may have not spoken very clearly.
I was not trying to say that God doesn't use experiences to teach us lessons or in His overall plan for our lives. I think we can see things in Scripture, like God using trials to refine our faith, grow us up, or teach us some type of lesson (James 1, 1 Peter 1:7). We can also see how God uses certain situations to teach people lessons. I know this has certainly been true in my life. God sovereignly led me through certain situations and experiences as a way to teach me what He was trying to teach me at those times. On a side note, it sure does seem like difficulties and hard times are the best teachers. C.S. Lewis puts it well: "God whispers in our pleasures, but shouts in our pains."
So, I'm all for God using experiences to teach us things. But, the key distinction is to be able to test and approve to make sure that we are drawing the proper conclusions. God will not teach us anything that contradicts Scripture. And there are a lot of other influences out there trying to teach us things as well. We are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind (by being in the Word) and not conform to the World (Rom 12).
-JRO
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1 comment:
It's your, um, customer again.
I like this one. I guess the third time is the charm (wink). That is what I was trying to say - that God does use experiences (and many times, like you said, the awful messes we get ourselves into) to teach us things. I love that C.S. Lewis quote, too. I wish pain wasn't such a good teacher.
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