We all have times in our life when we look back at something “bad” that happened in the past, maybe it was a break-up of a relationship, and we thank God that it didn’t work out like we’d hoped.  Isn’t it funny that in looking back at the time when you initially broke up, you were praying to God to “make things work out”?  So what changed?  Why did you go from praying one moment for God to restore a relationship to a later point in time thanking Him that it didn’t work out?  Well obviously the answer is time, but more specifically, perhaps you gained some objectivity over time, perhaps your perspective change, your desires may have changed, or perhaps things that were unknown at the time, came to light.  If you then, being finite in your knowledge and understanding can see how a previous “bad” situation was ultimately for your good, how much more is God capable of this?  The difference is you only know your life up until today, but God is outside of time, able to see every moment of every day from that day, until you die.  His knowledge is not just the result of a slightly better perspective, He has perfect knowledge.

Now I’m going to switch gears, but I’m going to tie everything up at the end, so bear with me.  How do you know whether or not you trust someone or something?  Surely it’s more than just saying you trust someone.  You know who you trust because you have shared things with them, you may have entrusted your children to them for a weekend, or your home, etc.  Ultimately you have placed your well being, and/or the well being of those you love, into their hands.  Now you wouldn’t put your trust in just anyone right?  They have somehow, over time proven themselves to be trustworthy, by their actions, and perhaps the testimony of others.  Maybe you sent off your 3 kids with them for an afternoon, and 2.75 kids returned in relative health that evening (close enough, right?).  But the reality is that there is also broken trust.  There are those that you have placed your trust in, that have let you down.

Now what I’m not going to say is that we are able to understand God’s purposes in things.  Even in the Bible it tells us in Romans 11:33-34 – “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!  “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 

Again in Isaiah 55:8-9 – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I think a lot of Christians feel the need to comfort others by trying to “understand” God’s purposes in hard times, and in reality, it may be that we are never to know.  It’s better usually just to weep with those who are weeping, but I could go off on a tangent here, so I’ll save that for another day.  So we, in our finite ability to understand the limited things we do, will never fully understand the “reason” behind things.  If that’s true, why should we trust God?  God has given us commandments in His Word, as to how we are to live our lives, so that we will have a measure of joy in this life in relationship with Him, and a fullness of joy in His presence after.  Why should we trust that His way is best, when the pain that you feel is real?  When it is within your ability to reach out and grab temporary pleasure, why should you trust God, that His way, maybe a harder path is better?  What has God done to reveal His trustworthiness?

Romans 5:7-8 – “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

2 Timothy 2:11-13 – “The saying is trustworthy, for:  If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.”

God has proven His trustworthiness in Christ.  How many friends do you know that would remain faithful, loyal to you, even while you mocked them, spat on them, and called for their death by the most humuliating and painful possible way?  God is faithful, because He is the essence of faithfulness, He cannot be otherwise.

If then God has perfect knowledge and is perfectly trustworthy, why do we struggle to listen to Him?  Why do we seek to run after what seems right to us in our own eyes, instead of walking in obedience to the One who knows all things, and loves us perfectly?  This isn’t easy, because we’re fighting our sinful nature along the way.  Our sinful nature tells us that we know better than God, that happinness is within our power to manufacture.  That voice, that urging is what we must kill, and the gospel is how we do it.  My encouragement is to dig deep into these truths, press them into your heart, and walk in submission to God.  Not blindly, but with eyes opened by the gospel to know the Truth.

Grace and Peace,
Adam