{"id":2098,"date":"2011-02-18T07:02:33","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T15:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eaf.net\/mvp\/?p=2098"},"modified":"2011-02-18T07:02:33","modified_gmt":"2011-02-18T15:02:33","slug":"how-to-be-perplexed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/2011\/how-to-be-perplexed\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Be Perplexed"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>Paul admitted to being \u201cperplexed but not in despair\u201d (2 Corinthians 4:8). I am curious about what could perplex a mature believer like Paul to the extent that despair was in the ballpark of contemplatable reactions. He doesn\u2019t go into detail, so we must imagine.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>I would suspect that what perplexed Paul was what has perplexed God\u2019s people of all time\u2014God seeming to act inconsistently with his promises or character. One psalmist asked God: \u201cWhy, O LORD, do you stand afar off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?\u201d (Psalm 10:1). That\u2019s my perplexity too. Recently I prayed according to Hebrews 6:11 for \u201cgrace to help in time of need\u201d\u2014and I felt no different afterward, no abating of symptoms.<\/p>\n<p>There are two different choices you can make at that point. You can be perplexed in doubt, or you can be perplexed in faith. Francis Schaeffer had said that there are at all times only the two \u201cchairs\u201d in the room: unfaith and faith.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Here is the other way to be perplexed when your soul is in distress. The first part of the sentence may be the same:<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-left:20px; padding:20px; background-color:white\">\u201cLord, I\u2019m perplexed. I came to the throne like You said [but at this point it takes a different turn] and I didn\u2019t feel any differently after I prayed, nor any abating of my distress. I am tempted to think You didn\u2019t hear me. But I will not go there. I know that You require faith. You said in your Word that if anyone would come to You he must believe that You exist and that You reward the one who earnestly seeks You (Hebrews 11:6). So I will believe that You heard me. I believe that as soon as I asked for help, You heard me and You are working something out. I will put my trust in You. Help me to be perplexed without unbelief.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Really, you would do well to read the whole piece: <a href='http:\/\/online.worldmag.com\/2011\/02\/17\/how-to-be-perplexed-2\/'>How to be perplexed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul admitted to being \u201cperplexed but not in despair\u201d (2 Corinthians 4:8). I am curious about what could perplex a mature believer like Paul to the extent that despair was in the ballpark of contemplatable reactions. He doesn\u2019t go into detail, so we must imagine. [&#8230;] I would suspect that what perplexed Paul was what &#8230; <a title=\"How to Be Perplexed\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/2011\/how-to-be-perplexed\/\" aria-label=\"More on How to Be Perplexed\">Read more<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[446],"class_list":["post-2098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-101","category-lessons-for-living","tag-prayer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prJUJ-xQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}