God does not explain Himself, God rarely gives reasons for what He does. A lot of times the events that unfold in our lives don’t make sense to us. And when they don’t we are then confronted with the basic tenet of Christianity, the righteous live by faith.
Tragedy is hard to understand, hard to explain and hard on our faith. Some people will lay the blame at the feet of God and will become bitter towards Him. We ask for a explaination and get silence, we ask for understanding, and are left baffled. Life is a mystery, and is beyond us, and even if it was explained to us, we probably wouldn’t be satisfied. We long for sensibility, we seek explaination, we are desperate for a reason.
One of the greatest expressions of faith comes from the Old Testament. The Prophet Habakkuk lived in times that were in any way of speaking very hard on faith. He saw the righteous suffering, while the wicked prospered. And he asked God the two questions we often ask of God, why and how long? Why is this happening? And how long will it be before God does something about it?
God had revealed to Habakkuk that He (God) was going to use the Babylonians as Gods instrument of judgement on Judah. What Habakkuk could not understand, what he could not comprehend, was that for a time evil would win over righteousness and bad things would happen to good people. That for a time Gods hand would not move, His face would not be seen. Yet during this time of punishment Habakkuk was reminded by God ” The righteous will live by his faith.”
Then Habakkuk realized that even if he didn’t understand Gods way methods or timing, he could not doubt Gods wisdom, love or reliability. Then Habakkuk wrote his great affirmation of faith.
“Though the fig tree does not bud, and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails, and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen, and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will triumph in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.” (Hab.3:17-19)
And what Habakkuk is saying here is even if everything he relied on failed, no matter the suffering, he would still trust in the Lord God.
Corrie ten Boom knew about suffering. She lived with a courageous faith. After surviving a Nazi concentration camp she said, “there is no pit so deep that God isn’t deeper still.” This is a apt analogy. Pain and tragedy is for some a bottomless pit. They see only blackness and hear only echoes of the life they used to know. And many people will claim that God is no longer present. But like Habakkuk, Corrie ten Boom reminds us in the pits of tragedy and suffering, God is still with us.
Yes pain is real, but God is real too. That’s where faith comes in. God has a plan for us and He is working that plan. We don’t always understand just what God is doing, His ways are far beyond our understanding. God sees all things at a glace. God sees both the beginning and the end of things, while all we see is only the present.
We often don’t understand why we are going though a crisis. its only afterwards, when we have had time to thinks things through, that we realize that God was right there with us all along. And for that reason, we put our trust in the ways of the Lord, believing that God is to wise to make mistakes. Also that faith believes that God is to kind to be cruel.
In Romans 8:28-29 Paul speaks of Gods grace and kindness when he wrote ” We know that all things work together for the good of those that love God, those who are called according to His purpose. For those He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so He would be the firstborn among many brothers.”
These verses are important for don’t say as much as for what they do say. They do not say that everything that happens is good. They do not say that God causes evil. They do not say that everything that happens will turn out okay for everyone. What they do say is , God is at work in the world, especially in the lives of His children. Gods purpose is to make us like His Son Jesus Christ, and to that end God can and does use all things, the good and the bad, no experience goes to waste.
Faith believes that God is always in control. Faith believes we must always trust in the heart of the Lord. God knows that it is only through struggle do we gain strength. Habakkuk showed great faith when he said in Hab. 3:19 “Yahweh, my Lord is my strength, He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights.”
This is the Lords promise to us, He will keep us on our feet as we travel on the path of life. God may not keep us out of troubles, but God does promise to get us through them.
God is always here for us, God will never leave us, even when we cant see the hand of God in things, know that God is there, and know that you can trust in Him. Even when we don’t know how long the trial may be, trust Him because He is the Lord God !