THINGS WE DON'T UNDERSTAND

THINGS WE DON’T UNDERSTAND

Janice was the perfect candidate for leadership. She met the basic requirements, participated in all the meetings and added real insight and help to the other members. Several of the leaders recommended her, and it looked like a lock. But when the final job interview came, she was denied. Why God? Why? There are just some things we’re not going to be able to figure out or understand. God is all-knowing. But we are not, and we can’t figure it out with reasoning or logic. We’ve heard the phrase, “There’s a reason for everything.” But the second half of that should be, “But we don’t get to know all the reasons.” The Lord is always going to know more than we do. He sees the bigger picture beyond what we can see.

Job 9:10 says He “doeth great things past finding out.”

That’s where trust comes in. With trust and obedience, there’s always going to be some unanswered questions: “Why, God?” “How?” “When?” We trust and obey from our hearts, not our minds. Our minds are too small to handle all the data it takes to answer every question all at once.

We have problems at times waiting on God and trusting Him. But we’re not the only ones. Take a look at Gideon.

The Midianites were destroying the land. The Israelites were hiding in caves, and they were in poverty. Gideon was threshing some wheat to hide it from the Midianites when an angel came to him and said: “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour” (Judges 6:12).

Then Gideon questioned: “But if the Lord is helping us, then why have all of these awful things happened? And where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of?” (v. 13). But the angel didn’t bother to explain why it was happening. He just told Gideon what to do next, and said: “Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites” (v. 14).

One vitally important thing we need to tell ourselves over and over is that we are important to the Lord. He doesn’t want to lose us. Just because the Lord doesn’t explain things to us all the time, doesn’t mean we’ve done something wrong, or that we are not worthy. Most Christians are way too quick to feel guilty for something and get fearful. But we are the Lord’s mighty ones, wherever we go, whatever we do. It took an angel to come to Gideon and set him straight, reminding him of who he was in God’s eyes. But we can also do this for ourselves, and we probably need to do it more often.

Daniel 4:35 says: “He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” We need to let God be God. He doesn’t have to tell us everything. He tells us He has a good plan for us and sometimes that’s all we need to know and then just keep trusting and doing the next thing.

Janice did the next thing God opened for her. She later found out that the company she had applied for was corrupt. Because of her integrity, she wouldn’t have lasted there even if she’d gotten the job.

So many things are like that; we don’t find out until later why our prayers weren’t answered in the way we had expected or in the time frame we were wanting. However, we see in the instruction book (the Bible) that everyone who trusted God and just obeyed, got great results, whether or not they understood the why and wherefore.

A word of caution: Many have listened to and obeyed their preachers and pastors without really verifying their actions or beliefs with the Word of God. We want to make sure we are trusting God, not just what some TV evangelist says. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). You don’t need a pastor to tell you what to do. Those of us who minister in the capacity of gift ministries are there to help, but God says: “The Spirit himself speaks to our spirits and makes us sure” (Rom. 8:16). We’ve sometimes trusted more in our teachers than in God and His Word.

Even though we may not know why things happen sometimes, the good thing is we have eternity to catch up on everything we couldn’t figure out. Meanwhile, we trust the Lord; and we bravely confess that we are His mighty ones; and we obey what we believe He is telling us is the next step. We let God be God and then we see the greatness of what He wants to do in our lives.

Love, Carolyn

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CHAPTERS

1.  GOING THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE

2.  COULDN’T STOMACH IT? LET IT GO

3.  PREACH YOURSELF HAPPY

4.  BEING LIKE BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN

5.  SEEING IN NEW WAYS

HOLIDAY CHAPTER

THANKSGIVING – RECEIVING YOUR HARVEST