July 31, 2023
Melissa Valerio
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways!” (Romans 11:33 HCSB)
Have you ever sat there and wondered why we are here? Why God created human beings in the first place? Why are the spiritual and physical worlds living simultaneously, but unperceivable to most people? I have so many questions!
Why does God allow some people to be healed and others not?
Why doesn’t He just deposit more patience in us, instead of giving more “opportunities” for patience to grow?
Why doesn’t He turn everyone’s heart toward Him?
Why work through humanity when He can speak, and it be done in an instant?
God is a mystery. Romans 11:33 confirms that there is no conceivable way to fully understand the workings of His mind. I don’t know why terrible things happen, but I do know that God is sovereign. He has total control over all things that happen to us. His wisdom is incomprehensible. We don’t see everything there is to see, but only a small token. It’s like giving a jigsaw puzzle piece to your child and asking them to describe the whole, completed picture by just looking at that one piece. It’s impossible. Sometimes the only thing left to do is relax our shoulders and say “Ok, Lord, I don’t understand what You are doing, but I trust You. Your plans are always good.”
The goal of the Christian life, I believe, is to trust God even when we don’t know what He’s doing. To know that though the path may be murky with trials and hardships, there is a reason and a purpose. Maybe it’s to grow our character. Maybe it’s to grow our trust. Maybe it is a result of sin or an effect of someone else’s sin. His ways may be a mystery, but His love is not. Rest assured, if it has come into our lives, He is using it for good. So, let’s try to stick to that truth and leave the rest to Him.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are the greatest mystery of all time. Your ways are not our ways, and Your thoughts are not our thoughts. Even if we had all of eternity to figure You out, we simply could not. We rest in Your wisdom and knowledge, knowing that Your ways are always better than ours. We trust You with all our hearts. In Your holy name, Amen.
Action: Think of an area of your life that baffles you. A situation that you have no control over. Remind yourself of Joseph’s story (Genesis 37-45). Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, taken to Egypt against his will, worked as a hired slave, and was unjustly thrown in prison before coming into a position of power. And finally in this position of power, he was able to save his entire family from death by famine. Though the days and years were hard on Joseph, he trusted that God had a plan for all the hardships, as he later discovered. The same applies to you and me. All the hardships we endure are for a great purpose. If only we’ll hang onto hope and TRUST that God is doing something wonderful through it.