How to be perplexed

Perplexity is part of the Christian life. The consequences of the Fall are, I take it, not only ecological, physical, relational, and emotional, but intellectual. I asked the Lord for something yesterday and did not receive it, and I don't understand why. My basis was His Word and my motive was His glory, and the instructions in Scripture seemed clear and unambiguous.

Today I will go to see a seminary professor I know, a man full of the Holy Spirit, and I will run this by him. But as I was pouring out my complaint to the Lord this morning, and reading His promise back to Him, I felt He issued me a warning. I want to be very careful about the way I come to God --- and to the professor, and to you, brethren --- with my perplexity. There is a way to voice our bafflement and a way not to.

It's no accident that the responses to perplexity of the priest Zechariah and Jesus' mother Mary are recorded side by side for us in Luke 1. I believe the Lord wants to show us the difference between approaching Him from a position of faith and approaching from a position of skepticism (well, the angel calls it straight-up unbelief). Note how almost identical the words of the priest and the virgin are. But God saw a big difference in the heart. Let Him find faith in my heart, even in my perplexity.