“WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING IN ALL TIMES” – June 25
June 25, 2013“Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” Job 40:2
Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
I don’t know.
Why does God allow natural disasters?
I don’t know.
Why does God allow sickness?
I don’t know.
The Lord Answering Job Out of the Whirlwind, from the Butts set. Pen and black ink, gray wash, and watercolour, over traces of graphite (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
These are but a few of the questions that get asked of God from hurts. I realize that there are theological answers to these questions. However, the troubled are not usually crying out for theology. They desire understanding. They seek comfort in knowing why something bad is happening to them or their family. They hope that in knowing the purpose behind their pain that their minds might be eased. There is a great difference between seeking answers from God and seeking comfort. Comfort, usually, comes from God without understanding. Most of the time, we will never know the purpose behind a tragedy. Therefore, we come before our Lord in faith:
I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Job 42:2-3
There are questions that rarely get asked of God from abundance.
Why has God given me such a good family?
I don’t know.
Why has God given me a healthy body?
I don’t know.
Why has God given me a good job?
I don’t know.
Why has God kept me safe?
I don’t know.
These questions rarely get asked because we usually believe that we have the answer. I have a tendency to associate good times with normal. My life should normally be filled with blessing and abundance. I view hard times and tragedies as abnormal. That is why I am so quickly inclined to question God’s purposes when my life becomes abnormal.
Consider the pride in my mindset of normal; in assuming that I am due blessings and prosperity. I imagine that the offense before God in our failure to acknowledge the source of our blessings is equal to that of our finding fault with Him in our pain.
Blessings provide physical and spiritual comfort but we must remember that they usually come to us from God without understanding. Most of the time, we will never know the purpose behind blessings or our prosperity. Therefore, we must come before our Lord in faith:
I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Job 42:2-3
We kneel before God in the same silence of faith at all times; in times of need and in times of abundance.
PRAYER: Lord, you know all things. All understanding is with you. No purpose of yours can be thwarted. Father, forgive me for demanding answers in my hurt. Forgive me for not praising you in my blessings. All things are from you and are yours. Lord, increase my faith. Grant me comfort in knowing that there are some things that are too wonderful for me to understand. I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
A DEVOTED LIFE 
This is good … your words, here, are solid to me: “the troubled are not usually crying out for theology. They desire understanding. They seek comfort …”
The art you have, Job prostrate on the ground as God shows Himself from the whirlwind … powerful. Peace, T
Thanks for the fresh wording of this principle: “the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be His name.”
what a good perspective! I never thought of it this way before but you are so right. God Bless:) also shared this on my Facebook page.
I have been thinking this for the last several days. …. I think the questions above come from my heart of entitlement issues … and I forget that this world is fallen…the only thing I am entitled to is wrath and justice. Christ is the only one who can save me from that … and then He saves me for another place, namely heaven … Amazing Grace … THANK YOU so much for this post .. you put it very well! (I wrote about this same thing in “Stuck” http://heidiviars.com/2013/06/22/s … blessings to you!
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It is true that we tend to blame God for the bad and take for granted the good.
I have found comfort when I understand that my Lord is sovereign over all the good and the bad things in this world and in my life. I give Him thanks for the blessings AND the tragedies in my life. The bad things in my life have slowly sanctified me and brought me closer to my Lord, the only One who I can hang on to, my rock and my graceful Savior. “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’? Isaiah 45:9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8
I am guilty on both accounts. I wonder why bad things happen; and I neglect to be thankful for the things I have. I also consider things which go well as normal, and when things are amiss as abnormal. Like you, I don’t know the answers either. None of us does. Thanks for writing this. I need to rearrange my thinking. JD, I love your prayers! Thank you so much for sharing with us. I learn from your writing which is an inspiration for my own. God bless you! Carol
Fantastically put. It’s exceptionally interesting isn’t it, that we think according to that logic. It’s similar to how we view God in the light of what we’d call, negative events. It all makes a fascinatingly natural bit of evidence to the fall in Eden. The first sin was to elevate the knowledge of good and evil over relationship with God. We do that sometimes when we suffer hardships, we see God as unjust in those moments thus rendering him condemnable and elevating good and evil over relationship with the author of good and evil.
If I get asked, ‘will my grandpa who never knew Jesus but was a good man, be in heaven’, I will never answer, ‘no’; always, ‘God is perfectly just and righteous and wants what is best for your grandfather’.
It’s hard sometimes to help people understand something of the character of our God when they are experiencing something that seemingly contradicts that attribute.
Thanks for getting my mind going
Reblogged this on One Starving Activist and commented:
Powerful insight; we expect all goodness and cry out when things get tough, never asking “why” when that good comes…