Wrong Questions Produce Inadequate Answers.
“We know in part and we prophesy in part. “ 1 Corinthians 13:9
My thoughts and comments today are about, “questions.”
Questions? We all struggle with them. Why? What? Where? When? Do you ever feel bewildered about things you don’t understand? A past you can’t explain. A future you can’t predict. Problems you can’t resolve. Circumstances you don’t control. People you can’t change. No matter how much you want to know or how hard you try, there are daily matters beyond your ability to understand or resolve, apart from God and His Word. Maybe, you are asking the wrong questions to inadequate sources.
Here is the good news. There are no such limitations for our all-knowing, all loving God. There are no bounds to the expanse of God’s knowledge and wisdom. Jesus boldly declared, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Revelation 22:13 NIV. There will be times when you will just not be wise enough to have the answer yet. But your Heavenly Father always does.
My maternal grandmother was a saint of a woman in the truest sense of the word, none more gentle, loving, or Godly. I never heard her nor heard of her ever saying an unkind thing about anyone. If anything, she was more likely to give some explanation of why they may have felt as they did or said what they said. When asked about someone or something she could not explain, she would quietly say, “Only God knows,” and go back to whatever she was doing, usually cooking or cleaning her house while raising 13 kids, of which my Mom was the oldest.
The unexplainable or unknowable often frustrates me, but never seemed to bother her. She was content with what she apparently was not meant to know, but wonderfully at peace that God does know, and that’s all that really mattered to her. I think I prefer to become a bit more like Grandma.
Jesus identifies with every time you have asked, “why?” On the cross, as death neared and the heavens darkened as though God had withdrawn His presence, Jesus’ humanity echoed yours and my anguish at the unknowable and unanswerable, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Yet the heavens remained silent; no answer came – until Easter morning. Yet Jesus was content that some things, “only Father God knows!”
I recall an earnest university student in my office asking honest questions about human suffering, terrible tragedies, and unanswered prayers. She was wrestling with issues of faith people older than her and wiser than me have struggled to explain and failed in our attempts. I made a valiant effort, not to answer the questions exactly, but to point her to the character and nature of God and His wisdom and unfailing compassion for a world damaged and deranged by sin. In His presence, you find assurance and renewed confidence.
Godly people have asked God the hard questions before, such as why do people do bad things, why do bad things happen to good people, and why do the righteous suffer while the wicked seem to prosper. Read Jeremiah 12:1-2 NLT and Psalm 73:1-19 NIV. When will things be made right? Read Psalm 1. Psalm 2 NLT.
Thinking back on that, I should have remembered my kindly, trusting grandmother’s wisdom, “Only God knows.” That may not seem enough for intellectual arguments and relentless minds. But that really is enough for a heart that is settled in God’s care and believing His Word.
Abraham came to this conclusion, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Genesis 18:25 NIV. In that truth, I rest all my questions. I guess that was my grandmother’s confidence as well. She knew God; what God knew was good enough for her. I am still learning that from her; I share it with you. ”For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. “ Read 1 Corinthians 13:9-13 NIV.
Today, I pray for you to rest in God’s wisdom when yours is incomplete.
EDL Communications 2019
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