We all have times in our lives when we wonder why God lets things happen to us…
“But, why?”, our hearts cry out when we face tragedy.
A baby is born with severe birth defects. A young college graduate with all of life ahead of him is killed by a drunk driver. A mother of three small children dies unexpectedly in surgery. Why?
What about those times when we can see no good whatsoever in what has happened? Well, for one thing, we have to remember that we don’t know everything. Is it possible that God has good reasons for what He has allowed that exist beyond the realm of our understanding? I’m sure we’d all have to admit that’s a possibility.
Here’s another thought—and I think it’s the secret. Paul says, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered…. This happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God.” We don’t have to rely on him when we can understand why we’re facing hard times; we can figure it out for ourselves. We say, “This is terrible, but I can see that God is accomplishing something special through this awful situation.”
But when we can’t see any good whatever, we have nothing left to do but to trust God in faith. In fact, I’m not sure anything else is truly faith, for, as Philip Yancey writes, “Faith requires obedience without full knowledge.”
Isaiah says, “Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.” Isaiah 50:10
And God is reliable. He is dependable, tried and true, and infallible.
When you can’t understand the circumstances, you can say is, “I don’t know why, but I know God!” As Nahum wrote, “He cares for those who trust in him.” -Nahum 1:7
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