Living With The Mystery

Living With The Mystery

Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are his riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods! For who can know what the Lord is thinking? Who knows enough to be his counselor? For everything comes from him; everything exists by his power. –Romans 11:33-34, 36

I picked up the newspaper this morning and read a story about a boy in our city who was malnourished and chained in his home by his parents. And I can’t help but ask, God, why would you let this happen? What are you thinking? As much as I’ve studied about suffering and as long as I’ve walked with God, there is still so much I don’t understand. Frankly, I think that if someone tells you they can completely explain suffering and God’s sovereignty, you should probably run in the opposite direction! How could any human ever expect to be able to explain the mind of God in these things?

There is a mystery to suffering and God’s sovereignty that can be unsettling and ultimately be the undoing of our faith if we do not make peace with it. There is no explanation for what is or what happens that is more definitive than God. “Everything comes from him; everything exists by his power” (Romans 11:36). It’s all his; we are his. So who are we to say that God owes us some answers? Who are we to bargain with God, indignantly demanding an explanation for the circumstances in our lives? Though we may not say it outright, our attitudes say to God, I don’t like the way you run the world; I think you should do things much differently! Although Paul says we dare not act as if we are the Lord’s counselor, we often do this very thing with boldness that borders on self-righteousness. We tell God how he should run the world, and we threaten him with our intentions to reject him if we deem his plan unfair or his performance unfit.

So I suppose the question we must ask is this: Are we willing to make ourselves at home with God in the midst of the mystery? Are we willing to obey and believe him and, most important, love him, even though we may never get all of our questions answered? Oh, my hurting friend, be slow to point your finger at God or to demand that he explain his unfathomable wisdom! Humble yourself and say with Paul, “What a wonderful God you are. How great is your wisdom!” (see Romans 11:33).

Wonderful God, I admit I do not know enough to presume to tell you how to run the world or even how to work in my life. The depths of your wisdom and knowledge are unfathomable to me, and I humble my heart before you.

DIGGING DEEPER