journey onWord with us

Do you ever feel like life is a cycle of one confusing event after another? There is so much that happens, and we all wonder “why?” On this side of eternity there are so many un-answered questions. Often there is a sense of feeling disobedient or “unspiritual” if we think or voice honest questions about the tough issues we face. But believe me, God can handle our questions and desires our honesty. Look with me at a few confusing examples that will resonate with all of us.

• I prayed so hard about it, but things still didn’t turn out well.

• Why did such a godly person pass away so young?

• Why do some of the people I love have so much pain? It seems so unfair.

• Parents walk with God in front of their children, only to raise adult children with little spiritual interest.

In your silent moments, some of those very thoughts may have passed through your mind. A godly relative of mine once said to me, “faith is great … after the fact”. Even though I gave him a good spiritual lecture, I am not naïve to the fact that most of us have encountered similar feelings. So how do we balance our confidence in the sovereignty and sufficiency of our Lord with the constant messages of life that attack our faith? We must choose to live by trusting in the absolute truth of God’s Word, and the power of its Author. Agreeing with the Word intellectually may be a given in your life, but battles still rage in the practice of it’s truth.

In his great work, My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers gives insight into the confusion(s) of life. He said, “You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey.” Isn’t it true that in our quest to make sense of this life, we far too often use our own reasoning to make it all fit? Unfortunately for us, even our best reasoning falls short in the simplest quandaries of life. If that’s not enough, our human logic struggles to ever make sense of the bigger questions like why some get cancer, and why the wicked strike it rich. Our best choice is to follow the logic of Oswald Chambers. Obeying the truth of Scripture and the prompting of His Spirit will help make the confusions of life clearer. Clarity will come in gaining His perspective, and not by having all of our questions answered.

You have your tough issues, and I have mine. Pull no punches with God; cry out to Him! There is no one more acquainted with your grief. Then accept that He will choose what He wants to reveal to us. He is God! … and we are not.

It is not His design to answer all of our questions on this side of eternity, but He has given us His Word, and His promise of peace. If you are a Christ-follower, don’t worry about what you can’t figure out or fix. Just obey what you know to be true, and submit your confusion to Him.

Psalm 55:22 (NLT)
Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.