When You Don’t Understand Why – Part 2 — A ‘Time With God’ Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning,

I love meeting with you each morning and helping you start your day with God. That’s the most important thing. Start your day with God, not just thinking about God, not just even reading your Bible and learning some things about God, but talking with God, listening to God.

The reality is God doesn’t want to be a set of beliefs that you hold.

He doesn’t want to be the activities around going to church. He wants to be an intimate part of your daily life. Sometimes we think, yeah, I go to church on Sunday, but that doesn’t really connect with the rest of my week, so I’ll take it from there.

Of course, if you really do that and you think about it, you know that that doesn’t work, does it, that we desperately need God in every moment of our lives, and it’s so important to maintain our relationship with Him. All this week we’re talking about a really significant question, and that is what do you do when you don’t understand why.

In all likelihood you, like me, have experienced times in your life and for probably many of us are experiencing it right now where life has fallen apart. And you feel helpless and hopeless, and you have no idea what to do about it. You don’t feel like there’s any person who can make things better. And nothing you can think of to do would make things better.

And you don’t know why God would be allowing this or why this could be happening in your life. What do you do at that point?

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While the Bible gives us some good insights, we saw yesterday when you don’t understand why, remember who, remember that God is there and you can turn to Him.

What I want to say to you today is when you don’t understand why – talk to God about it. When you don’t understand why, talk to God about it.

You know, the apostle Paul in the Bible was just a person, right? His trade was that he was a tent maker. And he was also trained deeply in the Old Testament scriptures, which was the whole Bible in his day. And he went into full-time ministry.

And as he travelled around to different places, something devastating happened in his life that really made him struggle, and he had no idea why. He asked God over and over to remove it from him, and that didn’t happen. And let me just read to you his own description of that experience in the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 12 in the New Testament of the Bible. Paul says:

I had these incredible revelations from God. And then he says, therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh. Some kind of physical struggle. He says it was a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me, but God said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, Paul. My plan is not to take this away from you.

Well, that must have been pretty devastating. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. You going through this is going to make me able to use you so much more deeply in the ministry I’ve called you to, Paul.

And so Paul then goes on and says, Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, in difficulties, for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Do you see how Paul’s perspective changed because he talked to God about this deep struggle he was having, he was tormented by this physical problem. Why won’t God take it away from me? Why am I in such pain? Why am I struggling?

When he talked to God about it, his perspective changed. He understood that God wanted to use this in his life, and he saw a purpose beyond it, just like a woman going through the pains of childbirth sees the purpose beyond the pain and can even embrace that pain so that she can get through to that beautiful baby.

So learn to talk to God. Are you struggling today? Talk to God about it. That’s what prayer is. It’s just talking to God. So talk to God about it and let Him change your perspective.

I’m John North.

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