When God does not make sense…
By: Pastor Glenn Repique
Have
you ever experienced a time when God seem to make no sense at all? Or have you
ever questioned His plan and will for your life as something foolish? At times,
basing on our human understanding, we tend to object God’s directions for our
lives. We tend to trust our own plans and strategies as we find them more
logical and even smarter than what God wants. At the end however, we realize
that we are wrong. God indeed made sense after all!
This
may have been Abraham’s experienced, the only difference was that, he trusted
in God and believed Him even when His plans seem not sensible.
After
many years of waiting for God’s promise, Abraham and Sarah had, at last, a son.
Isaac was born when Sarah was 90 years old and Abraham was a hundred. What joy
it was for them to receive the promise they have long been waiting for! Abraham
must have lots of dreams for his son. He could now envision Isaac to be a great
nation. God’s assurance to make Abraham the father of many people is now
beginning to be realized. Everything is now in its logical place.
There was a twist in the story, however. We
read the whole of it in Genesis 22:1-19. God wanted Abraham to sacrifice his
only son Isaac. It would mean killing his son on the altar before God!
“Was
God mistaken? What is He up to right now? Was He not the one who promised me a
son? What would happen to everything then?” These may have been few of the
questions Abraham had in mind as he tried to reconciled things, finding
reasonable explanations. But God was clear in His command. He wanted Isaac
dead! For sure, that was hard for Abraham to do. Any parent would feel his
predicament. Nonetheless, Abraham obeyed! He did not delay. The story tells us
that Abraham rose up early the next morning to travel three days to mount Moriah
As
they reach the place, Abraham prepared the altar, set the wood and made fire.
When it was about time to kill the sacrifice, we may wonder how hard it was to
explain things to Isaac who was at this time a teenager already. Isaac
understood and as he acted in submission, he was bound with ropes, placed in
the altar and was then ready to be offered. (Can you imagine the scene?) With a single-minded purpose to obey God,
Abraham lifted his knife having that sure intent of really slaughtering his
son. Isaac would have been dead in seconds had it not for God’s intervention!
Conversely,
God has another twist in mind. A ram caught in a thicket by his horn was
prepared by the Lord as a substitute for Isaac. God did not want Isaac dead at
the first place after all. Such an instance was for Abraham and for us to learn
some important lessons.
Through
what happened, God vindicated Himself before Abraham. God showed Abraham that
He is a Holy God who would never allow human sacrifices. He was different from
the gods of the surrounding nations requiring human sacrifices for their
worship and rituals. Abraham has a clearer understanding of God’s holy
character.
He
not only had a realization of God’s holiness, Abraham had experienced how
trustworthy the Lord was. He learned that faith in God was never a loss. In
surrendering to God’s plan, we will experience the victory! We sometimes fear
to trust God for everything. We tend to plan for our lives and execute them
according to our own strength. However, time and time again, we are reminded
through God’s word and through circumstances that we may propose our own agenda
but it is still God that disposes them. This does not mean insecurity, rather a
certainty that our future will indeed be in good
hands. We have a powerful God who controls all things. He can do the
impossible! His power is coupled by wisdom, which means it will never go wrong.
He will never make any mistakes! More so, He is not just powerful and wise, He
is most loving. He will never cease to be good. He will never be unkind and
abusive! As we hand over our future to God, let us trust Him fully. For as the
Lord would execute His plan and will for our lives, for sure, it will always be
for our best!
Abraham was also assured again by God of
His promise of making him a great nation. This however would not be realized
through human effort alone but through the working of the Divine Hand. Abraham
then had a better perspective of God’s promise. This is what trials do to us at
times. They prepare us for something better as what Beecher
Lastly,
Abraham did not just have new realizations about God; he has also learned how
to value God above any other human relationships. Abraham surrendered the
dearest possession he has! As the line of a song goes, “when praise demands a
sacrifice, I’ll worship even then, surrendering the dearest things in life,”
Abraham did! He followed and worshiped God in the hardest of times.
A quote
from McDuff would be timely as we ponder upon these things, “Trust God where
you cannot trace Him. Do not try to
penetrate the cloud He brings over you; rather look to the bow that is on
it. The mystery is God's; the promise is
yours.” We may propose a lot of things but it is still God that disposes them.
When the time comes that God’s dispositions seem not to make any sense, just
hold on in faith to Him because you will soon realized in God’s proper time
that He made sense after all!
TRUST
HIS HEART
BY: Babbie Mason and
Eddie Carswell
God is too wise to be mistaken.
God is too good to be unkind.
So when you don’t understand,
When you don’t see His plan,
When you can’t trace His hand,
Trust His heart.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine
own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay;
Mould me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still. —Pollard
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay;
Mould me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still. —Pollard
NOT MY WILL BUT
“YOUR” WILL
By L. Nombre
Several instances in man’s life when he
dreamt to be or intended to do certain things only to find out the opposite or
the unexpected result. In most cases, a goal-oriented individual has always a
target or specific objectives in life; be it long, medium or short term. He has
to consider the possible or surrounding circumstances in attaining his plan.
However, man must be aware that not all factors are humanly controllable. There
are uncontrolled variables in almost every undertaking. This we must
acknowledge. It says, “time and circumstance befall all men”.
Can a man command the direction of the
wind? Can he stop the current of the tide? Can he suspend the sun to shed its
light? What power has a man by himself? Proverbs 16:9 says, “In his heart, a
man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”
The book of Luke tells the story of a rich fool. It says: “The
ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, What
shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he tore down his old barns
and built a bigger ones, and there he
store all his grains and his goods. And
he said to himself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.
Take life easy, eat, drink and be merry.” But God said to him, “ You fool! This
very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have
prepared for yourself?” This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things
for himself but is not rich toward God(Luke 12: 16-21).
A man of God is a strong-willed person but submits his will
to God’s will. Only can a man be fully content and filled with joy if his
desires, dreams and actions are subordinated to God’s plan.
Not my will but YOUR WILL.
HIS
WAY My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass
from Me; nevertheless,
not as I will, but as You will. - Matthew 26:39
Even when we know that God's way is best for us, we may still struggle to obey Him. When Christ our Savior faced the horrible reality of bearing our sins on the cross, He agonized in prayer, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will" (Matthew 26:39). Jesus, who lived to do His Father's will, struggled and prayed, then willingly obeyed. And He can help us as we grapple with the difficult choices in our lives.
C. S. Lewis wrote: "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'" If we continually choose our own way, He will eventually allow us to suffer the consequences.
It's best to surrender to God now. If we do, we'll have the assurance that His way is best for us. —David C. McCasland, ODB, July 2005
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