Come a tough time and our most natural human response is to ask why. Why Lord did you allow this to happen? Of why God are you doing this to me? Where this is our natural human tendency, there is one fundamental issue with asking why and 2 crucial problems to that approach of tackling issues.
Fundamental Issue With Asking Why
To start with, asking the question why to the Gud Ole' Man up there hasn't really helped anybody. Even in the bible as far my knowledge goes, there is not one single recorded account of God answering anybody who asked Him why He was doing certain things! Imagine that, Moses, David, the prophets and even Paul asked him why. His answer however was plainly always one of the these 3:
> My ways and higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
> My grace is sufficient for you.
> He gave no answer at all.
If you evaluate any of these answers, in my understanding he was sending us a clear message. I'm mysterious folks, live with it! :-) Essentially that means for us that He was not about to and therefore is not about to reveal to us why He allows a lot of things to happen the way do in our lives.
But going beyond that, lets keep in mind that if we are asking the question why it is primarily because we want things to happen in our lives according to the way we want them to happen. Period. This shows that we are least happy when things do not turn out the way we want them to; because human that we are, we tend to want everything around us to work what we perceive to be good for us. So where then did all the times where you prayed or sang have Your way disappear? Further, as Rick Warren so aptly puts it in his book the purpose driven life, life and everything around us was not made so that it would serve us and our purpose. It was made so as to serve God's purpose.
How then can we expect for things to work out the way we want them to always? How right then is it for us to be disappointed and angry with Him when things do not turn out the way we want them to? Finally is it right for us to question Him why?
Everything He does is for a purpose. In Him the whole earth has its being and He plans to prosper us and not to harm us; He plans to give us a bright hope and a future. 'Coz He never did give us a blueprint of our lives in advance; what we might consider sudden, he had planned all through. How right are we then to ask why? I don't think we are right in asking the question and living with the attitude that everything around us was created to serve us and make our lives happy. That is just how selfish and small our viewpoint as humans is! This is the fundamental issue with asking the question why.
But there are further 2 crucial problems with asking the question why.
Firstly: It doesn't help us to tackle the issue at hand at all! Asking why can frustrate us more than helping us and moreover, it tends to bring us to a state of desperation where we allow our minds to get fuzzed up with the nonsensical lies of the red one and sense of hopelessness he wants us feel while we are low thus.
Secondly: The bible is very clear about how God is in charge of lives no matter what He seems to be allowing. While we go through trying times, He expects us to rely on Him in order to soar above the storm on wings of eagles. Our greatest example is definitely our Lord Jesus. He knew no sin, yet the sin of the entire world was put on His shoulders. He knows how we feel, because He has been here Himself and felt those same emotions. Yet, there is not one single recorded instance of Him asking the Father Why!
Even in His darkest hour, in the garden of Gethsemane his response was not why. Rather in the midst of that pain and turmoil, He submitted to the will of the Father. Should we not be following His example as Christians?
Further, lets think about this - when you sinned, did He ever ask you why? Or did He just embrace you in quiet acceptance, with open arms when chose to confess and return to Him? Finally did we ever stop to ask Him why He loves us so much and why He showers us with blessings, a lot more than we could ask for or imagine? If we didn't take the time to do that, we have no right to ask Him why when we perceive things to be going wrong!
God has never asked you why. How dare you and i ask Him why? Lets rather learn to ask Him WHAT He wants us to do during those times and HOW he wants us to do it!
May His continued grace be with us.
Fundamental Issue With Asking Why
To start with, asking the question why to the Gud Ole' Man up there hasn't really helped anybody. Even in the bible as far my knowledge goes, there is not one single recorded account of God answering anybody who asked Him why He was doing certain things! Imagine that, Moses, David, the prophets and even Paul asked him why. His answer however was plainly always one of the these 3:
> My ways and higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
> My grace is sufficient for you.
> He gave no answer at all.
If you evaluate any of these answers, in my understanding he was sending us a clear message. I'm mysterious folks, live with it! :-) Essentially that means for us that He was not about to and therefore is not about to reveal to us why He allows a lot of things to happen the way do in our lives.
But going beyond that, lets keep in mind that if we are asking the question why it is primarily because we want things to happen in our lives according to the way we want them to happen. Period. This shows that we are least happy when things do not turn out the way we want them to; because human that we are, we tend to want everything around us to work what we perceive to be good for us. So where then did all the times where you prayed or sang have Your way disappear? Further, as Rick Warren so aptly puts it in his book the purpose driven life, life and everything around us was not made so that it would serve us and our purpose. It was made so as to serve God's purpose.
How then can we expect for things to work out the way we want them to always? How right then is it for us to be disappointed and angry with Him when things do not turn out the way we want them to? Finally is it right for us to question Him why?
Everything He does is for a purpose. In Him the whole earth has its being and He plans to prosper us and not to harm us; He plans to give us a bright hope and a future. 'Coz He never did give us a blueprint of our lives in advance; what we might consider sudden, he had planned all through. How right are we then to ask why? I don't think we are right in asking the question and living with the attitude that everything around us was created to serve us and make our lives happy. That is just how selfish and small our viewpoint as humans is! This is the fundamental issue with asking the question why.
But there are further 2 crucial problems with asking the question why.
Firstly: It doesn't help us to tackle the issue at hand at all! Asking why can frustrate us more than helping us and moreover, it tends to bring us to a state of desperation where we allow our minds to get fuzzed up with the nonsensical lies of the red one and sense of hopelessness he wants us feel while we are low thus.
Secondly: The bible is very clear about how God is in charge of lives no matter what He seems to be allowing. While we go through trying times, He expects us to rely on Him in order to soar above the storm on wings of eagles. Our greatest example is definitely our Lord Jesus. He knew no sin, yet the sin of the entire world was put on His shoulders. He knows how we feel, because He has been here Himself and felt those same emotions. Yet, there is not one single recorded instance of Him asking the Father Why!
Even in His darkest hour, in the garden of Gethsemane his response was not why. Rather in the midst of that pain and turmoil, He submitted to the will of the Father. Should we not be following His example as Christians?
Further, lets think about this - when you sinned, did He ever ask you why? Or did He just embrace you in quiet acceptance, with open arms when chose to confess and return to Him? Finally did we ever stop to ask Him why He loves us so much and why He showers us with blessings, a lot more than we could ask for or imagine? If we didn't take the time to do that, we have no right to ask Him why when we perceive things to be going wrong!
God has never asked you why. How dare you and i ask Him why? Lets rather learn to ask Him WHAT He wants us to do during those times and HOW he wants us to do it!
May His continued grace be with us.