Great Is Thy Faithfulness 10/14/18
Lamentations 3:1-66
Can I just pose a simple question? I’ll ask it, keeping in mind the fact that there are over 6 billion people alive today, not to mention the billions who’ve ever been alive since Adam.
Does God owe us an explanation? Does God owe any of us, an explanation about anything?
Because we often act like He does. Does God owe each and every person who has ever lived an individual explanation of how and why things are the way they are in general, let alone our own specifics? I get the sense that people think: God owes me an (acceptable to me) explanation in order for me to feel justified enough to move forward in life and trust Him. i.e. We have our list of demands in the form of questions, that if unanswered, we think gives us just cause to dismiss God and His purposes. Do we really think that it is reasonable to expect a justifiable explanation of life to be meted out by God to each and every person who has ever lived? I don’t think it is.
And yet, I believe He has indeed given us more than enough insight into the complexities and questions of life in the inspired pages of His Word, the Bible. No, not every single specific situation is addressed, but pretty much every scenario in general is addressed in principle. Lamentations is a perfect example of this. For when we thrust ourselves into the shoes of God’s faithful dealing with the destruction of their homes, their city, the possible loss of family members (the list could go on), we can learn how such pain and tragedy was dealt with and lived through in the past. We can grow to understand better how to live and trust God within any given situation, based on very similar situations that have been previously experienced in history and documented for us in Scripture. All of life on earth unfolds and fits into the bigger context of that larger story of: Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration. It all fits into and is explained by that meta narrative. That’s what the larger purpose of the Bible is and what it does. Through it, we can always gain proper perspective, if not specific answers to our individual questions.
And I think we’ve all heard someone say something like, ‘One day we’ll have all our questions answered for us’. But I don’t even believe that to be true. Knowing everything would make us God. That was even part of that first deception in the garden, the chance to know everything like God… And that is just not going to happen. So we can trust Him for what He has revealed to us and know that we do fit into His Story, albeit as a small piece. But we are all a piece, meaningful enough to die for and extend eternal life to. And even if all our questions are not answered, enough will be. He is always enough.
Comentarios