Thursday, March 13, 2008

Beyond Our Understanding

Beyond our understanding

One evening in our small group we got into a discussion about some of the more difficult ways of God. If we were honest, I think we would all have to admit we don't understand why God chooses some and not others.

Why God choose Israel and not Assyria? Why God choose Jacob rather than Esau. Why God choose David rather than any of his brothers. Whether it is this concept or another, we do not understand God's ways.

He is surely knowable through His word and our personal relationship with Him, but we cannot comprehend Him. There was a time when that would have caused me great distress. I have come to realize that my distress was a result of my own prideful heart, trying to understand the things of God that were not given to me to understand. In my effort to comprehend God I was attempting to bring Him down to the human level so that His ways would make sense to me. If I had been able to succeed, God would not truly be God; rather He would have been no greater than I.

In many ways, that is what our society has done. They argue that since His ways do not make sense to them, either He does not exist or they will not follow Him. "I cannot accept a God that allows..."

"Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the LORD, and their works are in the dark; They say, "Who sees us?" and , "Who knows us?" Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; for shall the thing made say of him who made it, "He did not make me"? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding"? Isaiah 29:15-16

Accepting and acknowledging that we do not understand God's ways is not a sign of resignation or weakness but rather a sign of faith embracing truth. Personally, when I accepted this truth I found that out of it flows praise of the One True God.

Is it wrong to ask why? Or How? I don't think so; it is a natural question of our hearts in an effort to bring order and sense to our world. When we allow the truth that His ways are not our ways and yet they make sense in His economy, and that everything makes sense without compromising a single one of His attributes or marring any part of His character, I believe the most natural response of a humble heart is praise and worship.

"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 'For who has known he mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?' For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever, Amen.

Diane Hunt is the Director of Addiction Recovery Ministries at America's KESWICK, Biblical Counselor, Conference and retreat speaker, Victory Call editor, wife, mother, grandmother, and nut and not necessarily in that order.

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