Saturday, January 24, 2015
1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
GOD'S MYSTERIOUS WAYS
Children of God have always had problems they couldn't solve or understand. Even the apostle Paul did not always know how to solve every problem. There were others. Abraham, the father of Christian believers, was inexplicably commanded to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Job, a man who feared God, was robbed in one night of all his children, all his possessions, and was smitten with boils from head to toe. Joseph was sold into slavery and unjustly imprisoned. David, a man after God’s own heart, was repeatedly under attack for his life.
So also in our lives. We cannot always understand why God lets His children weep while the ungodly appear to be happy and prosper. We cannot understand why a child of God is chronically ill and another enjoys continued health. We cannot understand why one who is aged, weary of life, and longing for deliverance, lingers on while another is quickly removed from this vale of tears and transferred into the bliss of heaven. We cannot understand why a Christian often seems to get nowhere in spite of his faithful efforts, while children of this world gain wealth and power.
What keeps us going is what we do know. We know that "Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Your ways, O King of saints" (Revelation 15:3). We do know that "all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).
Knowing these things helps us not to murmur or complain. It also helps to remember the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane where our Savior, kneeling in agony under the weight of the sin of the whole world, prayed: "Not My will, Father, but Thine, be done."
And we know that everything Jesus was enduring there was to gain for us forgiveness of sins, and with that, eternal life and salvation in the mansions of the Father. When by faith we enter there, we will see Him face to face, and all His ways will be wonderfully clear to us.
Heavenly Father, we know You love us. In every trial and testing help us too-oft shortsighted, impatient mortals trust that all is well that's done by You. In Jesus' name, Amen.
