by David Brenneman
When We Don't Understand
"This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain." Hebrews 12:27.
We may live in experience a fallen that world, so there are circumstances we may experience that will be God's are perfect will for us. Indeed, there are tragedies we will witness that are beyond human explanation and that shake us to the core. However, the Lord may allow us to face them through His permissive will for some significant purpose. In His omniscience, the Father knows what is ultimately best, including the long-term consequences of calamities that seem completely devoid of any good. We should not doubt God or abandon our beliefs when we lack understanding. Instead, we should latch on to what we know is true and not let go-and that is the goodness of God.
We must trust Jesus. That can be difficult, but understand that your life matters to God to a degree beyond which you can fathom. He cares for you, and He wants to teach you through what He is doing. So when you face inexplicable circumstances, remind yourself that God always has your best interest in mind. No matter what befalls you, your all-loving, all-wise, all-powerful heavenly Father has you in the cradle of His hand.
Jesus, I want to believe You. Help my unbelief, teach me and heal my heart. Amen.
-Trusting God with Today, Dr. Charles Stanley
"It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” Mark 9:22-24.
"In my distress I called upon the Lord, Yes, I cried to my God; And from His temple He heard my voice, And my cry for help came into His ears." 2 Samuel 22:7.
"Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You for help, When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary." Psalms 28:2.
My Dear Reader, if we're honest as we ought to be with one another, we have prayed that prayer in one way or another.
We might even be aware of this passage too: "In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." Romans 8:26-27.
What we go through in life might seem like we're all alone, but the reality is we never could be alone when it's the u deserved grace and mercy of God that even provides our heartbeat and each breath we take in.
I have had many opportunities to experience being alone or at least my perception of what alone feels like. The truth is extremely similar to a story I once heard.
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Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's right of passage? It goes like this...
His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him an leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone.
Once he survives the night, he is a man.
He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own.
The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him . Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!
Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold.
It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.
We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, Sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him.
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We are quick to mistake silence for abandonment. Quick to think we're the only ones going through our hardship and pain. Quick to rush to judgment about what our situation is and what it appears to be headed for.
The truth is God only knows.
We go through what we do in order to be refined in the fires of tribulations to become more like Jesus Christ. That's what the work of God in Christ Jesus is always only going to be doing in our lives. That's what being "His workmanship" is all about. We won't always be blessed with understanding the why's behind the pain or sorrows but we will be able to know that He is there through the day and night by our side through it all.
I have been in serious school since last January in how I have been directed to learn from the Spirit of God. 6 devotional books and 4 Study Bibles. Every single evening even if it means losing sleep to complete it. My lessons went into the physical world in June of last year when, through no fault of my own, I was fired from my employer. All I had done was befriend a brother in Christ, no more, no less. God has made my innocence in the matter very clear to me. So my attention was then on what is in this season of life that I am to learn? It might indeed have everything to do with helping my unbelief.
We can withdraw from God, maybe even blame God, for what He allowed to happen to us at the hands of men and women. That, my Dear Reader is always the wrong perspective.
Job was educated on his wrong perspectives on what he was going through. He never connected the dots until after his exchange with the Lord Jesus Christ in the latter parts of the book of Job. The reality was his affliction was sanctioned by the Lord but carried out by Satan. But with limits in place that Satan had to abide by.
We can go through many things that are possibly Satan's fondest desires for us but are in the same manner as Job. Limits set by Jesus that cannot be overruled. We are to look to Christ for our life breath and all things...even within what we go through that we don't understand.
One sure lesson in the last 8 months is that it's ok if I can't figure out why. Another is to listen and do whatever He puts before me to be doing even if it isn't making sense at the moment. An applicable Life Principle is to obey God and leave the consequences to Him.
We are brought to things, go through things, in order to trust Him more. The appropriate response also should be to love Him more. To praise Him in the storm just as well as when there is none.
We need help with our unbelief because no matter who you are you have some that needs dealt with.
It's a simple enough prayer. Right there with Nehemiah's bullet prayers that have no time for words that are lengthy. We who are in Christ know what the Spirit will do when words fail us.
As our belief in Jesus Christ and His work in us proceeds we will grow in Christ. We will become more like Jesus. Isn't that what we really want more than anything?
Praying for ourselves to have our belief strengthened isn't a sin or even something that Jesus has a problem with. He visited with His Disciples for 40 days after His resurrection to grow them in Himself before leaving to take His place at the Father’s side in Heaven.
More than anything don't you want what God wants for you? It's going to mean going through some things to get there. As someone who had a conversation with a silversmith learned...silver stays in an appropriately heated fire only long enough for him to see his face in the silver then it's pure enough to be removed.
What we go through is there only long enough for Jesus to see something of Himself in us.
Lord I believe, help my unbelief!
Make me as you want me to be.
All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
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