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THE QUESTION IS WHY?
By Hratch Balozian.
We
should never ask "Why" in the sense of demanding that God
explain or justify His actions or what He permits in our lives. We may not
demand of a sovereign Creator that He explain Himself to His creatures.
God has good and sufficient reasons for His actions; we trust His
sovereign wisdom and love.
When I say we
should never ask "Why?" I an not talking about the reactive and spontaneous
cry of anguish when calamity first befalls us or one we love. Rather, I am
speaking of a persistent and demanding" why" that has an accusatory
tone toward God in it. The former is a natural human behavior, the latter
is a sinful human reaction. Three of the Psalms begin with why: Why do you
stand far off? Why have you forsaken me? Why have you rejected us forever?
Ps. 10, 22, 74. But each of those psalms ends on a note of trust in god.
The Psalm writer did nor allow them to take root and grow into accusations
against God. Their" Whys" were really cries of anguish, a natural
reaction to pain.
By contrast, there
are sixteen "Whys" in the Book Of Job. Sixteen times Job asked
God "Why". He is persistent and petulant. He is accusatory
toward God. And, as has been observed by many, God never answered Job's
Whys. Instead He answered "Who".
I have long since
quit seeking the answer to that question "Why" in my own life...
God owes me no explanation. He has the right to do what He wants, and how
he wants. Why? Because He is God... Job didn't need to know why these
things happened as they did-- he just needed to know who was responsible
and who was in control. He just needed to know God.
In using Job as an
example of asking why in a bad or sinful sense, I do not mean to denigrate
Job. I know that I have asked that question many times under obviously far
less trying circumstances than the calamities that over came Job. God
Himself commended Job's righteousness to us. But God was not only dealing
with Job; He recorded those dealings for our benefit that we might learn
from them. And it seems clear that one of the lessons God wants us to
learn from Job's experiences is to stop asking "Why".
But though we
should never ask a demanding "Why", we may and should ask god to
enable us to understand what He may be teaching us through a particular
experience. But even here we must be careful that we are not seeking to
satisfy our souls by finding some spiritual "Good" i the
adversity. Rather we must trust god that He is working in the experience
for our good, even when we see no beneficial results. We must learn to
trust god when He doesn't tell us why, when we do not understand what He
is doing.
In closing, this is
my prayer, Gracious Lord, I confess I have periods of rebellion when I
hold you at arm's length. My will has had to be softened and remolded
until I am willing to trust you. You have all the authority. Possess my
mind with clear convictions that you are in charge of my life and the
lives of those about whom I am concerned. I surrender myself and them to
you. Brand in my heart and on my mind great truth that Paul wrote while he
was in prison:" I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me" Philippians 4:13. Let me have that kind of faith, which enabled
Paul to run the race that you had marked out for him, no matter what difficulty
or suffering befell him. In Christ Name Amen.
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