I just read a post from a dear friend regarding his wife's health. She is someone I pray for regularly and for him, too. The news was not what he wanted to share and certainly not what I or others would want to hear. It caused me to begin to pray and I realized as I have so many times before in her and other situations that God knows. He knows the need and He is the only one who can do anything. From our vantage point, we don’t always see Him do what we think is the right thing to do.
This is not about understanding what God does or even why he does something. Rather it is about trusting God in spite of our resistance to what might happen. If we are honest with ourselves then we can be honest with God. We can believe and trust Him in all things even though we just don’t understand.
We find solace and even peace when God is in control and we are not. It may go against what we want to think but it is true. He is God and we are not. I saw a post asking for prayer for someone I don’t know. I stopped and prayed for that person. Why? I don’t know them so it doesn’t affect me but it does affect them and their family. This is not about praying but it is about recognizing that He is God and we are not. Who else would I pray to? Who else can move into any situation and predicate change? Only the good Lord in Heaven.
Things don’t always make sense, do they? The Bible tells us that God said in Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says 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.
Now that is intended by God to provide us with a clear understanding and thus a peace that He is in charge. God is under no obligation to request our approval or provide us with His rationale. The words in Isaiah provide us with actually all we need to know.
It is so unfortunate that as His creation we have succumbed to the lies of the devil. In so doing we find ourselves at this present state of affairs. There is a continual downward spiral of man and it is taking us further and further away from the Lord each day. This is true for humanity and thus each one of us individually. There is no way to separate the sum of the whole into individual pieces.
Earlier in Isaiah 53, we read again in the NKJV-
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
We are all responsible for what is happening in the world today. Now you are going to quickly say that it is not your fault, that you didn't make it happen, whatever it is. Yet in actuality you did, we all did. We are all the offspring of and the recipients of original sin. How did God put it to Adam in the Garden of Eden?
Genesis 2:16-17 NKJV
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
You will note that this command is given to Adam prior to God giving him Eve as his helper comparable to him in verse 18. It was Adam's responsibility to educate Eve on what God had commanded and it appears he did just that in the days that followed. However, it is very important to see that Eve did what she thought was right when she gave in to the temptation. Her actions cost her and Adam. These same types of things are seen throughout God's Word and in each of our lives to this day.
We will never get it right this side of Glory. We will continue as mankind and individuals to make the mistakes that cause us great consternation. The word is sin and it always takes us further than we wanted to go, cost us more than we wanted to pay, and kept us longer than we wanted to stay.
Don't throw your hands up in the air and declare defeat. Rather, acknowledge as did David in Psalm 51:4 NKJV-
Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight—That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.
It has been said in many ways and by many people over the years and they were all right, life is hard then you die. Life is hard and death is something that unless Jesus Christ is sent by the Father to get His church, we will all face one day. As Christians, we hold firm to our faith in the Lord. If you look into Scripture you find that all that man has to deal with goes back to that day in the Garden when sin entered. The woman would have pain and distress in labor. Man would sweat and toil in the field. The bottom line is things were going to be rough. They were then, they have been throughout, they are today, and will continue to be so until the end. Remember that life is hard and that things don't always make sense.
In God's Grace,
Elbert Nasworthy
Kommentare