There is a purpose, and there is a plan, even when our human intellect cannot perceive them. If God Himself said that our ways are not His ways, and our thoughts are not His thoughts, then we have to allow for the reality that He will not go about accomplishing something the way we would have, by the same route, or in the same manner.
I keep returning to the idea that we must have absolute trust
in the God we serve, and that level of trust can only come about if we know Him.
A superficial understanding of the nature and character of God cannot bring you
to a place of fully trusting Him. It’s easy to trust when all is well, and
things are running smoothly. It’s far more challenging to do it when everything
seems to be falling apart, and every avenue you take ends up being a dead-end
road.
Sometimes, we ask questions to which we get no answer because
we already know the answer; we’re just hoping for a different one. Last year,
we got to do something I’d dreamt of doing since the girls were still in
diapers. We got to go on a road trip. I know my dreams are simpler than other
men’s, but it’s the way I’ve always been. I never dreamt of a Lamborghini, a
gold-plated toilet, a palatial estate, or a private jet, but that road trip was
something I wanted to do before the good Lord called me home, and it came
together quite unexpectedly.
One of my wife’s clients has a condo in Florida, and on a
whim, she asked if we wanted to go and spend a week there. Not one to turn down
a free week on the beach, even if it was in December, we made the necessary
plans, and when discussion of how we’d get there inevitably ensued, I told my
wife I wanted to drive. She agreed, albeit grudgingly, and that was the end of
that.
I should have known better than to expect my dream of a road
trip to match the reality of it, but I was so enthusiastic about the prospect
that I didn’t really think it through. Since we left at a little past midnight,
the first few hours were everything I’d imagined: Me driving, my kids sleeping
in their car seats, and my wife nodding off in the front.
Then the girls woke up, and the constant chorus of “Are we
there yet?” started in earnest. Obviously, we weren’t there yet. We’d just
gotten into Kentucky, and we had a way to go, but even after I explained it to
them, it was as though they were stuck on replay, and every couple of minutes,
they’d take turns asking the dreaded question.
At some point, I stopped answering because they already knew
the answer. No, we weren’t there yet, and we wouldn’t be for at least another
ten hours. If you already know the answer to the question you’re asking God but
don’t want to acknowledge it in the hope that you’ll get a different answer,
stop asking or be honest enough to tell Him you don’t like the answer He
already gave you. However, instead of courting rebellion, my counsel would be
to say, Lord, your will be done, and continue your journey of faith.
It’s disingenuous of us to think that God will change His
mind on a given issue just because we make a nuisance of ourselves and keep
asking the same thing over and over again. The way is the way, and the journey
will last for as long as it must because the whole point of a journey is to
reach your destination.
We can choose to be soldiers of the cross or temperamental
children. We either put on the whole armor of God and defend the truth of the
gospel against enemies from without and within or sit in the dust complaining
that our piece of cake wasn’t big enough or that we didn’t get the special job
we wanted, and let others fight the battle and reap the corresponding rewards.
No, it is not a sin to ask questions. It borders on sin,
however, when having already received an answer, we keep asking the same
question because we don’t like the answer we got. Either obey or don’t, but
tempting God never ends well.
There are plenty of individuals within the contemporary
church who’ve talked themselves into believing that they can do as they will
and still be pleasing in the sight of God. In modern-day parlance, they believe
they can have their cake and eat it too. Such individuals give certain
Scriptures a wide berth because they contradict their fallacious beliefs,
pretending as though they don’t exist.
One of the most damning passages regarding this mindset is
found in the first chapter of Romans, where Paul warns that there are those
among the brethren who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped
the creature rather than the Creator.
Last week, I had to go back to the store and exchange a
winter jacket I’d bought for my eldest daughter for a larger size. In order to
receive the other jacket, I had to be in possession of the jacket I’d already
purchased in order to exchange it. Paul isn’t referring to individuals who
never knew the truth or were never in possession of it but who willingly
exchanged the truth of God for the lie because they preferred the lie over the
truth. It fit them better, and that mattered more to them than whether or not
it was godly, truthful, or in line with Scripture.
When we are unwilling to allow the word of God to transform
us, and when we bristle at the idea of being molded into a vessel of honor
because we prefer to have it our way and reject the truth of Scripture due to its
being inconvenient or offensive to the flesh, we choose to shrug off the truth
and walk away from it to the cold embrace of the lie. You already know God
disapproves; why try to stir His anger by asking if He’s willing to make an
exception for you? He is not, and if a voice whispers in your ear that He is,
it wasn’t His voice!
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea, Jr.
Posted on 18 December 2024 | 12:24 pm
Page processed in 0.017 seconds.