This Moment in Time
by Brenda J. Davis
Right here and now God intends for us to live the truth of His Word. Whether we're lauded for who we are or praised for what we accomplish is of no eternal consequence, really. It' faithful, trusting obedience that matters to God more than anything. I know this, yet I've often spun my wheels, wondering what God is up to in my life when things seem, well, contrary to what I planned.
Recently, a phone call from an old friend really got me thinking (again) about the unresolved issues of walking with God. Apparently, she had prayed and believed God that relocating to a new city for a new job would open doors for greater happiness and fulfillment. Instead, she told me she felt as though she’d taken a leap backward, and is now frantically looking for the exit.
She wondered why God would lead her into what she was coming to believe was a bad situation. After all, He knew what the outcome of this transition would be, and surely He knows her makeup, so why did He allow her to move ahead with the plans she felt He had orchestrated? Wow!
Before you begin thinking I had an answer for you, let me tell you, I did not. I feel sometimes as though I’ve lived my life with that question lurking in the shadows just about every day. We do our best to seek God’s will, His purposes, and yet we can end up taking steps that seem to make things a whole lot worse than before.
It has occurred to me that if you are the sort of person who cannot abide perplexities and unanswered questions, you will probably be frustrated in your Christian walk. We know that God’s character is consistent. He has promised that He will never change in His love for us. However, He never promised us that His faithful, righteous, just and loving ways would always make sense to us.
As humans who feel pain and who long for life’s joys and blessings, what do we do with the knowledge of His higher ways? How do we interpret them? How are we to be comforted when we can’t understand?
Here is where faith makes its entrance, comes to center stage, and we yield our position, quieting our demand to know all the answers and understand. We take what we know of God’s character, we study His interactions with others in His Word, and we choose to trust Him. Oh dear. Often that’s a whole lot easier to say than do.
However, as we mature, the yielding does get easier, and the periods of anger, frustration and despair begin to more readily give way to God’s peace. This process still isn’t as brief for me as I wish it were. I still wrestle way too long. I guess I keep thinking that there must be a different solution this time—perhaps there is something easier (less painful) than yielding my right to know.
My friend’s call found me in the midst of studying the book of Job, and one verse leaped off the page: “‘I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth….I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!’” (Job 19:25,27, NIV).
I had to tell my friend I really did not understand God’s dealings with her life any more than I can comprehend the way He’s often led me. I don’t avoid asking Him to give me understanding; sometimes He does. But most of the time, I’ve found life can be so puzzling.
Maybe it is extremely perplexing for you right now. Nevertheless, God knew this moment would come for you, and He wants to come alongside you in a way that perhaps you never needed Him to before. In the process, He is giving you the opportunity to be everything He says you can be in His Word. This is your time (and mine) to be faithful, trusting and obedient to the best of our knowledge.
If we are going to live in peace, it cannot be based on the satisfaction of knowing it all. Our peace must come in knowing Him, and fixing our minds on the things we’ve settled in our hearts, the things we believe about God that we do not question.
Now, tell me, what do you know? What do you do with your questions? How do you stand when you don’t understand?
Brenda J. Davis is an acquisitions editor for the Strang Book Group and the former editor of SpiritLed Woman magazine.
Right here and now God intends for us to live the truth of His Word. Whether we're lauded for who we are or praised for what we accomplish is of no eternal consequence, really. It' faithful, trusting obedience that matters to God more than anything. I know this, yet I've often spun my wheels, wondering what God is up to in my life when things seem, well, contrary to what I planned.Recently, a phone call from an old friend really got me thinking (again) about the unresolved issues of walking with God. Apparently, she had prayed and believed God that relocating to a new city for a new job would open doors for greater happiness and fulfillment. Instead, she told me she felt as though she’d taken a leap backward, and is now frantically looking for the exit.
She wondered why God would lead her into what she was coming to believe was a bad situation. After all, He knew what the outcome of this transition would be, and surely He knows her makeup, so why did He allow her to move ahead with the plans she felt He had orchestrated? Wow!
Before you begin thinking I had an answer for you, let me tell you, I did not. I feel sometimes as though I’ve lived my life with that question lurking in the shadows just about every day. We do our best to seek God’s will, His purposes, and yet we can end up taking steps that seem to make things a whole lot worse than before.
It has occurred to me that if you are the sort of person who cannot abide perplexities and unanswered questions, you will probably be frustrated in your Christian walk. We know that God’s character is consistent. He has promised that He will never change in His love for us. However, He never promised us that His faithful, righteous, just and loving ways would always make sense to us.
As humans who feel pain and who long for life’s joys and blessings, what do we do with the knowledge of His higher ways? How do we interpret them? How are we to be comforted when we can’t understand?
Here is where faith makes its entrance, comes to center stage, and we yield our position, quieting our demand to know all the answers and understand. We take what we know of God’s character, we study His interactions with others in His Word, and we choose to trust Him. Oh dear. Often that’s a whole lot easier to say than do.
However, as we mature, the yielding does get easier, and the periods of anger, frustration and despair begin to more readily give way to God’s peace. This process still isn’t as brief for me as I wish it were. I still wrestle way too long. I guess I keep thinking that there must be a different solution this time—perhaps there is something easier (less painful) than yielding my right to know.
My friend’s call found me in the midst of studying the book of Job, and one verse leaped off the page: “‘I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth….I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!’” (Job 19:25,27, NIV).
I had to tell my friend I really did not understand God’s dealings with her life any more than I can comprehend the way He’s often led me. I don’t avoid asking Him to give me understanding; sometimes He does. But most of the time, I’ve found life can be so puzzling.
Maybe it is extremely perplexing for you right now. Nevertheless, God knew this moment would come for you, and He wants to come alongside you in a way that perhaps you never needed Him to before. In the process, He is giving you the opportunity to be everything He says you can be in His Word. This is your time (and mine) to be faithful, trusting and obedient to the best of our knowledge.
If we are going to live in peace, it cannot be based on the satisfaction of knowing it all. Our peace must come in knowing Him, and fixing our minds on the things we’ve settled in our hearts, the things we believe about God that we do not question.
Now, tell me, what do you know? What do you do with your questions? How do you stand when you don’t understand?
Brenda J. Davis is an acquisitions editor for the Strang Book Group and the former editor of SpiritLed Woman magazine.
posted by Valerie G. Lowe at
3:04 PM
4 Comments:
I believe that a faithful life is spent "living with questions." We appropriate the Word of God as best we can, we move by the leadings that we discdern are God and then we trust God to work all things out "for our good". I am reminded of John the Baptist when he sent word to Jesus if he was really the Messiah. John, who had preached the coming Messiah, now found himself imprisioned and it just didn't seem like things were working out as they should. Jesus heard the questions of John, but he did not answer them. He instead told him to examine the evidence. The lame walk, the blind see. Examine the evidence!!! And so it is in our lives. We must examine the evidence, trust God and learn to live with our questions.
Brenda, I know that when more than one person is involved in God's equation, both things have to line up for changes to be made. Your friend made the necessary change she felt God leading her to make. However, maybe the person or situation on the other end hasn't been resolved yet. Tell her to wait upon the Lord to set it right. Anne S. Grace
I believe that when things i dont understand come my way especially those i consider 'painful' ,i can look up on what am sure about my God in the bible.These include
1)His plans are to give me a future and a hope
2)That God will never leave me nor forsake me no matter what i face
3)That He is my God,the all powerful one is on my side
4)He will strength me
5)He will help
6)HE LOVES me
That even when my tears are still streaming gives me comfort and a smile.
Carol ,Kenya
After reading closely what your friend had been believing God for, it sounded to me that her happiness and fulfillment were placed in her circumstances or something external,instead of being in Christ. Sometimes we can want something so badly that we can convince ourselves that it's God's will for us, and we begin to pray "our will" be done, instead of His will be done, without waiting as long as it takes on Lord to find out what His good and perfect will is, instead of just praying and believing God to bless what we want or are about to do. This was one lesson I had to learn time and time again. I thought it was God's will, but it was actually my own. And I found out the hard way that our prayers may move the hand of God, but they definitely cannot force Him to finish something that did not begin with Him. What we may be believing God for may sometimes not be in His will, but the lesson we can learn from it certainly may be.
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