You don’t get to know everything
I just wish God would tell me what He’s up to!
Sound familiar?
Usually by the time this phrase makes it past our lips, we’ve had some frustrated feelings simmering for a while. Maybe it’s difficulty at work. Maybe your family isn’t acting like a family. Maybe you’ve hit every red light for the past week. Maybe you’ve been hit by several expenses within a short amount of time. Maybe political leaders are leading their nation where you don’t want it to go. Whatever it is, it’s not something you’ve expected…let alone something you can see a way out of.
So, what do we typically do when we don’t understand what’s happening in the world? We eventually allow our feelings to boil over, and we vent our frustrations to God. But what are we really saying here? We’re subtly accusing Him of holding out on us.
Sorry, I didn’t mean for that to sting so much…but it does sting, doesn’t it?
I just wish God would tell me what He’s up to!
Do you see that statement for what it really is? We’re certain that we would understand our current problems if God would justify His reasoning to us.
We’re acting as if God should be accountable to us and our preferences for how we think our lives should go.
Nowhere in Scripture does God promise to give us all the details or to justify His decisions. In fact, He tells us to expect the opposite:
Isaiah 55:8-11
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not My ways.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.
“For as heaven is higher than earth,
so My ways are higher than your ways,
and My thoughts than your thoughts.
For just as rain and snow fall from heaven
and do not return there
without saturating the earth
and making it germinate and sprout,
and providing seed to sow
and food to eat,
so My word that comes from My mouth
will not return to Me empty,
but it will accomplish what I please
and will prosper in what I send it to do.”
And then there’s us…shaking a frustrated fist and trying to tell God – the inventor of the water cycle(!), which sustains all life on earth – that He’s doing stuff wrong.
We’re comically small sometimes. Small-minded. Small-focused. Small-faith.
So, what should we do when our frustrations build and we don’t understand the world around us? The answer is in the two verses preceding the passage above:
Isaiah 55:6-7
Seek the Lord while He may be found;
call to Him while He is near.
Let the wicked one abandon his way
and let the sinful one his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord,
so He may have compassion on him,
and to our God for He will freely forgive.
We are small, but God doesn’t abandon us to our smallness. If we turn to Him, seeking His way instead of insisting on our own way, He will respond with compassion and forgiveness.
And, if we’re honest…we want to receive compassion and forgiveness more than we want answers and explanations. So, seek the Lord. Let Him handle the rest.
Keep Pressing,
Ken