Most likely we will encounter things in life that don't go the way that we think they should and in some cases they will happen in sharp contrast to what we would ever wish. Contrary to our own desire the end results might even be painful and in our own view, tragic. As God's children we're taught that He loves us deeply, so while these things are happening ... where is He?
In former life I was brought to wonder about this question myself more than once. In the absence of a divine revelation at those times, I would eventually seek to develop my own theories. They usually took the form of shameful accusations for which I harvested deep regret when purely out of an act of His grace, He later allowed me to understand some of His reasons for His decisions.
Being human with human limitations and abilities to control the conditions and situations around us, we find ourselves heavily reliant on God's grace as His children to cover what we can't. But when His responses, or lack thereof, in a given situation betray our wishes or our definite, assured opinion of what should take place, we may find ourselves struggling to reconcile His choice with our faith in the end. What I've personally come to realize is that the particular exercise of those attempted reconciliations is one that we're not necessarily equipped to manage. Given our limited capacities for knowledge, wisdom and understanding against that of The Unlimited God, we might more easily pull the moon closer to the earth with the power of our minds.
To begin with, we were created by a God whose knowledge, wisdom and understanding is unlimited and exactly perfect. Add to that the fact that He created us for His pleasure - not the other way around and things begin to find their proper order. Does His purpose for our creation mean that He doesn't care whether or not we're happy? Of course not. As humans it tends to be an obvious truth that we can witness that true love tends to dote on the desires and the best interests of the object of it's passion. How much more true would that be of the perfect author and pure embodiment of love? The obvious demonstration of this being the sacrifice of His own Son to save the object of His passion - us. Putting things in their proper place - to be more accurate - giving God His proper place in our hearts and minds, requires respecting Him for who He is ... even when we don't understand.
Isaiah 40:25-31 (NLT)
25 “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One. 26 Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing. 27 O Jacob, how can you say the LORD does not see your troubles? O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights? 28 Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. 29 He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. 30 Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. 31 But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
It might not suit our human desire to understand or in many cases to control things in our lives, but there is a default and necessary position for we who have "faith" in the One we believe in: it's called trust. The words faith, belief and trust are easily interchangeable in most cases and for some that may give reason for a little thoughtful pause. Faith is a word that's easily tossed around these days, even where the word trust is more cautiously regarded. But the truth is that they're very closely related, if not completely interchangeable. So consider the following:
Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT)
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD . “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."
These are words that the Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah to the children of Israel while they were exiled in Babylon. This is the heart of an omnipotent father with the power to unfailingly deliver on His word, expressing His still good intent toward His children even while they're being punished for their bad behavior. It wasn't His desire to crush and obliterate them. In fact, He no doubt would have rather been allowed to hold them close, but their own behavior and deficient character precluded that and made it necessary for a historic "time out". His children were eternally at risk and His correction was necessary in order to attempt to save them. While we may not necessarily be in a similar corrective time out, we're certainly living in a culture and world reeling with the devastating effects of sin. It's important for us to remember while we're here that the heart of our Father as expressed through His prophet Jeremiah is no different toward us - we are His children also. If we hold firmly to that same intention of His toward us in our hearts and minds, trusting Him above everything else - in every situation and every circumstance we will one day find our "faith" rewarded in ways that we won't even have words to describe as we find ourselves at our Father's feet.
It's imperative to the success of our relationship with Him and to our eternal success that we trust Him in His perfection, regardless of the way circumstances may present themselves at any time. At no time is His intention toward us ever wavering or in question. Only the circumstances we may face change. The expression of His loving intent toward us preceded our creation as He fashioned the earth and all of it's wonders to both sustain and captivate us. His intention and plan to redeem us were set before He fashioned and breathed life into us. From the moment that He conceived of the very idea of us in His mind, True Love has tended and doted on the desires and the best interests of the object of His passion - us.
The sunrise does not begin in the twilight of the morning without His will and intention. Nothing grows and nothing breathes - indeed nothing lives without His continued intention. Nothing continues to exist without His continued intention. We trust in His intention - His will, every moment without even noticing every day. From before He formed us in our mother's womb, He has loved us and His actions will in the end confirm His love for us whether we understood them in the moment or not.
Luke 12:28 NLT
"And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?"
We're His in every respect and as His we have everything rigged in our favor toward all that actually counts for eternity. It's only our trust and participation in His plans that make the end result even remotely questionable. Even if we "lose" in this life - we will win eternally if we trust Him which is so far greater than this present moment. Our Father knows that and His perfect plans for us and His perfect ways are intended for our success and reward in the far greater expanse of that eternity. His desire is for our success and contentment here also, but His eye is always more greatly focused on eternity as the priority for our benefit. What He is currently focused on will one day be the greatest thing we will be grateful for and care about ... forever
Hebrews 10:23 NLT
"Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise."
As this body that I momentarily inhabit moves ever slowly toward becoming old, I know that even as it ages, I have not yet even been born into the life that my Father has intended for me all along. From the very moment that He thought to create me His intention for me has been for a life beyond this one. This body may face disappointment, hardship, tests, be stricken or even destroyed. But this body is His and I am His, but I am not my body because I am spirit - created in God's own image and I will continue to trust Him in His good intention without regard to momentary circumstance - because He will never fail me ...
In former life I was brought to wonder about this question myself more than once. In the absence of a divine revelation at those times, I would eventually seek to develop my own theories. They usually took the form of shameful accusations for which I harvested deep regret when purely out of an act of His grace, He later allowed me to understand some of His reasons for His decisions.
Being human with human limitations and abilities to control the conditions and situations around us, we find ourselves heavily reliant on God's grace as His children to cover what we can't. But when His responses, or lack thereof, in a given situation betray our wishes or our definite, assured opinion of what should take place, we may find ourselves struggling to reconcile His choice with our faith in the end. What I've personally come to realize is that the particular exercise of those attempted reconciliations is one that we're not necessarily equipped to manage. Given our limited capacities for knowledge, wisdom and understanding against that of The Unlimited God, we might more easily pull the moon closer to the earth with the power of our minds.
To begin with, we were created by a God whose knowledge, wisdom and understanding is unlimited and exactly perfect. Add to that the fact that He created us for His pleasure - not the other way around and things begin to find their proper order. Does His purpose for our creation mean that He doesn't care whether or not we're happy? Of course not. As humans it tends to be an obvious truth that we can witness that true love tends to dote on the desires and the best interests of the object of it's passion. How much more true would that be of the perfect author and pure embodiment of love? The obvious demonstration of this being the sacrifice of His own Son to save the object of His passion - us. Putting things in their proper place - to be more accurate - giving God His proper place in our hearts and minds, requires respecting Him for who He is ... even when we don't understand.
Isaiah 40:25-31 (NLT)
25 “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One. 26 Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing. 27 O Jacob, how can you say the LORD does not see your troubles? O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights? 28 Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. 29 He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. 30 Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. 31 But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
It might not suit our human desire to understand or in many cases to control things in our lives, but there is a default and necessary position for we who have "faith" in the One we believe in: it's called trust. The words faith, belief and trust are easily interchangeable in most cases and for some that may give reason for a little thoughtful pause. Faith is a word that's easily tossed around these days, even where the word trust is more cautiously regarded. But the truth is that they're very closely related, if not completely interchangeable. So consider the following:
Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT)
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD . “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."
These are words that the Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah to the children of Israel while they were exiled in Babylon. This is the heart of an omnipotent father with the power to unfailingly deliver on His word, expressing His still good intent toward His children even while they're being punished for their bad behavior. It wasn't His desire to crush and obliterate them. In fact, He no doubt would have rather been allowed to hold them close, but their own behavior and deficient character precluded that and made it necessary for a historic "time out". His children were eternally at risk and His correction was necessary in order to attempt to save them. While we may not necessarily be in a similar corrective time out, we're certainly living in a culture and world reeling with the devastating effects of sin. It's important for us to remember while we're here that the heart of our Father as expressed through His prophet Jeremiah is no different toward us - we are His children also. If we hold firmly to that same intention of His toward us in our hearts and minds, trusting Him above everything else - in every situation and every circumstance we will one day find our "faith" rewarded in ways that we won't even have words to describe as we find ourselves at our Father's feet.
It's imperative to the success of our relationship with Him and to our eternal success that we trust Him in His perfection, regardless of the way circumstances may present themselves at any time. At no time is His intention toward us ever wavering or in question. Only the circumstances we may face change. The expression of His loving intent toward us preceded our creation as He fashioned the earth and all of it's wonders to both sustain and captivate us. His intention and plan to redeem us were set before He fashioned and breathed life into us. From the moment that He conceived of the very idea of us in His mind, True Love has tended and doted on the desires and the best interests of the object of His passion - us.
The sunrise does not begin in the twilight of the morning without His will and intention. Nothing grows and nothing breathes - indeed nothing lives without His continued intention. Nothing continues to exist without His continued intention. We trust in His intention - His will, every moment without even noticing every day. From before He formed us in our mother's womb, He has loved us and His actions will in the end confirm His love for us whether we understood them in the moment or not.
Luke 12:28 NLT
"And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?"
We're His in every respect and as His we have everything rigged in our favor toward all that actually counts for eternity. It's only our trust and participation in His plans that make the end result even remotely questionable. Even if we "lose" in this life - we will win eternally if we trust Him which is so far greater than this present moment. Our Father knows that and His perfect plans for us and His perfect ways are intended for our success and reward in the far greater expanse of that eternity. His desire is for our success and contentment here also, but His eye is always more greatly focused on eternity as the priority for our benefit. What He is currently focused on will one day be the greatest thing we will be grateful for and care about ... forever
Hebrews 10:23 NLT
"Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise."
As this body that I momentarily inhabit moves ever slowly toward becoming old, I know that even as it ages, I have not yet even been born into the life that my Father has intended for me all along. From the very moment that He thought to create me His intention for me has been for a life beyond this one. This body may face disappointment, hardship, tests, be stricken or even destroyed. But this body is His and I am His, but I am not my body because I am spirit - created in God's own image and I will continue to trust Him in His good intention without regard to momentary circumstance - because He will never fail me ...
I will trust in His will and far greater wisdom for my only hope of reaching the future destination that I was truly created for rest solely in Christ.
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