Have you ever uttered those words? Have you ever faced a set of circumstances in your life which made no sense as you struggled to see what God was doing? I’m sure you have and I’m equally sure you have uttered these words more than once
‘God, I don’t understand …’
Think about Abraham, the moon-worshipper living on Ur. He receives an amazing call from a God he knew nothing about and he packed up everything and headed out to an unknown destination. Then this God promises this very old man and his wife a son. Sarah is barren and Abraham is 100 years old!
‘God, I don’t understand …’
Then there is Moses, of course. God asked him to lead God’s people out of captivity, out of slavery in Egypt and take them to the Promised Land. What should have been an 8-10 day journey took 40 years and a whole generation died before they made it into the land and Moses didn’t even get to be there when the victorious day finally arrived.
‘God, I don’t understand …’
What about David? He is anointed to be King as a very young man but God does not open the door for him to begin his reign for many, many years. Worse than that, the current King is becoming more deranged by the day and David ends up running for this life and hiding in caves as the King tried to kill him!
‘God, I don’t understand …’
Think about the disciples on that first Palm Sunday when hundreds of thousands of people lined the road and laid down palm leaves as Jesus entered Jerusalem in what looked like the coronation celebration for a King. Within days, Jesus is betrayed, arrested, whipped, spat on, convicted on trumped up charges and sentenced to death. The man Who rode triumphantly into town as a King on Sunday is on His face sweating blood on Thursday night. The adoring fans who were shouting ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’ on Sunday were shouting ‘Crucify Him!’ on Friday.
‘God, I don’t understand …’
So where do you go when you just don’t understand? I go to Philippians 4:7 where we are promised that, “… the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
From the very beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry He never promised understanding. He didn’t say, “Come and sit here while I tell you everything that is going to happen and where I am going to lead you and what you need to cope with what is ahead …” No, Jesus simply said, “Follow me.” At no point did He promise we would understand. We are promised something far greater – we are promised a peace from God with transcends all understanding!
If understanding is our focus we will really struggle through life. If we really want to experience the peace of God, then we need to give up the right to understand.