The Most Common Question Asked… Why??

Sometimes things just don’t make sense. Sometimes we don’t understand. Many times we ask God, “Why?” and seem to get no response.

But let me admit that many times when I asked “why?” there was a hidden “I don’t really trust you” message behind it. “God, I’ve asked you to be lord of my life, but are you sure you should have done things this way?” “Why is it taking so long?”

And I find myself offering the omniscient God suggestions! How foolish!

It’s so hard for us to let go. It’s so hard for us to trust, especially when we don’t understand. But does God sometimes ask us to trust even when we don’t understand?

It sometimes feels like He asks us to trust especially when we don’t understand. Why? Could it be that the lesson of trusting Him is far more important to Him and to His shaping of our characters than our request or question? Could it be that He realizes how difficult it is for us to trust and so knows that this lesson will only be taught by asking us to place our Isaacs on the altar?

If Abraham, God’s “friend” as the Bible calls him, needed such an immensely difficult lesson of trust, don’t you think we would too?

He’s asking you and me today, “Do you trust me?” A quick look at the history of God’s story as told in the Bible, and a quick look at the history of our lives, will undoubtedly attest to God’s trustworthiness. Humans have and will continue to fail us. We fail them too. We even fail ourselves. Only God stays faithful because He cannot deny Himself (2Timothy 2:13); His very nature.

We all know of human relationships that have lost the foundation of trust. Think of a boss who lost trust for an employee, a friend who lost trust for a friend, or a wife who lost trust for her husband… we’re surrounded by examples and the resulting excruciating pain of a lack of trust, which we have painfully named betrayal.

Jesus Christ experienced it Himself, having been betrayed by those closest to Him. He knows the pain and will do everything it takes to teach us to trust Him. But will we allow Him to? Like many invaluable lessons in life, trust is rarely learnt in comfort zones. There is a price to be paid, but if the result is having Abraham’s kind of trust, are we willing to pay Abraham’s kind of price?

Do we love Him enough that we can’t bear to have Him feel like we don’t trust Him? We all know how that feels.

So my friends, I pray that the Holy Spirit would gently ask you this question, “Do you trust Me? Do you trust Me when you don’t understand? Do you trust Me especially when you don’t understand?”

And I pray that with this question, you would feel the everlasting love He has for you; the love that led Him to bear the cross to recover this eternal relationship and fellowship for which He created you. A love that is capable of healing your deepest hurts and insecurities and restoring you to the beautiful, original YOU that is like no other on the face of this earth.

My friends, when we experience this amazing love story, our doubtful “whys” will gradually fade into nonexistence and will be gradually replaced with a certainty of His unending love that encompasses and defines our very existence.