“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
“Why?”
At some point, we all ask this question of God.
Paul Tripp offers a good perspective on this in his book, Everyday Gospel: A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of Life. “Because God’s way is not our way, there will be times when what God is doing won’t make sense to us and what He asks us to do will be different than what seems best to us. These are fault-line moments, when either we will let our logic be our guide or we will submit our reason to the infinitely holy wisdom of our Lord. Sometimes God will surprise, confuse, or even confound us, but He will never do what is evil… He is good and, because He is, even in our confusion, we can know peace.”
Even though we don’t understand the why, we can trust the One who is in control of all of our Whys. His ways might confuse us, but there will come a day when we will understand them fully. In the meantime, we can experience peace just in knowing that He is still on the throne.
Prayer: To you, Lord, I surrender all of my whys. Though I fail to understand your purpose and your plan, though evil seems to prosper unchecked, I trust your almighty hand and rest in your peace knowing one day I will experience that ultimate ‘aha’ moment when all will be made clear. In your name I pray, Amen.
Thought: Even though God’s plans will sometimes surprise and confuse us, all of His ways are right and true all of the time and in every situation. Paul Tripp