And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.”
-Charles Haddon Spurgeon
This is a quote I use as I find so much comfort, peace, and reassurance in what Spurgeon is saying. What it does for me is it helps to keep me focused on the truth that I must trust His heart in all things. That God has it under control and that He is accomplishing His will in all things. Regardless of what I, you, or anyone else attempts.
The exciting thing about that truth is that there are those times when we can actually trace His hand and see exactly what He is doing. I find those times to be so satisfying and encouraging. It is peace and confidence that comes with going through that situation and seeing how what is happening is obviously accomplishing God's will and purpose. Those are the times in which we as His children are where He desires us to be. We are not wandering around and trying to do and accomplish something on our own. We are in His control, in His hand and there is no better place for us to be.
Now as wonderful as those words of Spurgeon are it is what he said in the sentence before that I want to focus on today. The reason is that as comforting and exciting as it is to know we can trace His hand and trust His heart there is a reason we do so. We know it but Spurgeon declares it in a very profound and powerful way when he states that-
“God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken.
That is an "aha" moment when we read those words. There is a lot about God that we really don't know. Yet there are things He has gone to great lengths to help us understand. We know His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. We know that because we can read His declaration in Isaiah 55:8-9 English Standard Version-
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
A part of our problem as sinful people is that we attempt to put God in a controlled environment we have constructed and expect Him to act and be what we want. That is simply wrong because He is God and we are not. God's Word provides us with account after account of people, even God's people, trying to do it their way. False gods worshipped and acknowledged carved images or made something an object of worship. In every case, we conclude that it failed miserably and brought them under God's judgment. Not because God enjoys judging but because it is only God who can judge. Spurgeon makes that perfectly clear when he begins by saying that-
God is too good to be unkind... doesn't mean that He can't judge but that He must judge in order for His will to be experienced by us. He continues to say ...and He is too wise to be mistaken. Remember I said that there is a lot about God we don't understand? This is a perfect example of that statement.
There are too many today who think they are wise. Understanding exactly what should be done and how things are in life. That is categorically wrong for any person, especially for the believer. The truth here is that God is not desiring or even attempting to be unkind because He is too good to do so.
As Spurgeon states He is too wise to be mistaken. All of this was not a mistake or an experiment that went wrong. I am amazed at what I consider to be the unmitigated gaul of man to think that God does not have this all worked out.
When we recognize and acknowledge God and His attributes one is that He is omniscient. The best way to define this is to know that God's omniscient nature means that He knows everything. He knows the future, the past, and everything that is going on at this moment.
Let me show you what I mean. God's Word tells us that there was a lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world. We look at Revelation 13:8 ESV and we read-
and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
Now this shows us two things the first is that there is a time coming when ...all who dwell on earth will worship it,... The "it" that is mentioned here is the Beast from the Sea seen in Revelation 13:1-10 and that is a topic for another time. The other thing is that there is judgment coming for all men and that everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. The point I want you to see here is that God from the beginning of this world, from its foundation, the lamb was slain. Not figuratively until Jesus went to the cross but it was declared He would be slain. So God knew man and woman whom He created, Adam and Eve, would sin and then sin would pass unto all men.
Now you might say that is a lot more than I thought he would deal with today. I'll be honest with you when I started this today I had no idea it would go this far. Let me tell you though, what we learned from this today. That is, when we are blessed by words of encouragement like those of Spurgeon. There was so much that went into and continues in his statement. God created a world for a relationship with His creation. His creation messed it up but then again He knew they would. He didn't throw His hands up and mourn about it. Because He had already made a way when He built the foundation of this world that His Son Jesus Christ would atone for our sins, all of our sins.
In God's Grace,
Elbert Nasworthy
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