Don't Ask Me Why
Just take your chances
Don't ask me why
-Billy Joel
I believe that God says to us, "don't ask me why", sometimes. I believe he says that because it is the wrong question.
Asking childlike questions is normal and good. Curiosity, as an adult, is a wonderful thing as well.
You may ask, "why is this happening to me?" Know that you may never know. Just live your life. Faith it. That means trust God.
You also may reach the wrong conclusion, so stop asking and move forward. We have an enemy that wants to discourage us, who is the liar. His job is to immobilize you. He wants you to reach the wrong conclusions about God, yourself, and others. He wants you deceived.
You also may reach the wrong conclusion, so stop asking and move forward. We have an enemy that wants to discourage us, who is the liar. His job is to immobilize you. He wants you to reach the wrong conclusions about God, yourself, and others. He wants you deceived.
If the enemy can embitter you against God or against your self, he has succeeded. When we judge God, by rejecting his gifts to us, we bring ourselves under a curse. We can stop the blessings in our lives. So much of walking in the kingdom is about personal responsibility. It works if you work it and it does not work if you do not do something. It's that simple. God's sovereign grace and your response (ability).
Whatever God allows in your life, he also gives you grace for. There is grace for salvation and more grace for living the life. When bad things happen to you, you get to discover grace packages that you did not know you had.
Children ask why, but in a childlike way. "Why do cats purr?", or "Why did grandpa die?". Kids ask all the why questions and parents and others get to try to answer them.
People who have a loss in their lives may also ask, "why?" A diagnosis, a sudden death, a natural disaster, or crime committed on them or a loved one. We naturally ask, "why?", when these things happen.
I quoted Billy Joel, at the top, but in the Bible, this topic is covered in the book of Job. Job asked. His friends answered wrongly. Take note, dear reader who has a suffering friend. Don't be like Job's friends who victimized him with their faulty theories.
And God did not answer. Did you get that? We, the readers of the book of Job, know about the Devil's role in Job's suffering. But, Job and his friends and wife, did not know this. We find out that God allows the Devil to hit people. But God is still good and God watched over Job and took care of him.
There is a bogus idea that we have that says that bad things happen to bad people, so if something bad happens, you are being punished and must be bad. There is another angle where they say that bad things happen to good people not because they are bad, but because God is not all powerful.
These are both wrong. People approached Jesus with the why question about some people who died terrible deaths, in Luke 13. He does not answer the question, but says to the questioners that they should repent and get right with God, or they too will die. Jesus says to look at the bigger picture, and get right with God now, so that you are always ready to die.
I quoted Billy Joel, at the top, but in the Bible, this topic is covered in the book of Job. Job asked. His friends answered wrongly. Take note, dear reader who has a suffering friend. Don't be like Job's friends who victimized him with their faulty theories.
And God did not answer. Did you get that? We, the readers of the book of Job, know about the Devil's role in Job's suffering. But, Job and his friends and wife, did not know this. We find out that God allows the Devil to hit people. But God is still good and God watched over Job and took care of him.
There is a bogus idea that we have that says that bad things happen to bad people, so if something bad happens, you are being punished and must be bad. There is another angle where they say that bad things happen to good people not because they are bad, but because God is not all powerful.
These are both wrong. People approached Jesus with the why question about some people who died terrible deaths, in Luke 13. He does not answer the question, but says to the questioners that they should repent and get right with God, or they too will die. Jesus says to look at the bigger picture, and get right with God now, so that you are always ready to die.
We need to move away from the "why?" that cannot be answered. When we are not in a childlike place, nor in a state of shock, and we continue to press on, "why?", we can be in a dangerous posture of accusing God, as in, "why did you let this happen?"
If we do this, we are out of line. We are judging God. We are critiquing. The enemy smiles when you do this. The opposite spirit of this is to be like Job, and say, "though he slay me, I will yet trust him."
If we do this, we are out of line. We are judging God. We are critiquing. The enemy smiles when you do this. The opposite spirit of this is to be like Job, and say, "though he slay me, I will yet trust him."
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble your self, you who are tempted to accuse God.
God wants a people who are the opposite of embittered, who have faith (Luke 18:8). Faith is, at its core, trusting God. We do things by faith (trusting God). When they don't work out or we fail or are rejected, we rely on faith (trusting God) all the more. Then, we exercise some more faith (trusting God) and try something again. God rewards faith (Heb. 11:6).
I believe that God wants us to try, in faith, and fail, rather than not try. I have heard people I trust tell how they heard the Lord say to them that he wished they had tried things and failed more. God loves failures. He loves it when we try to do something, with a good heart, in faith; but fail.
God wants a people who are the opposite of embittered, who have faith (Luke 18:8). Faith is, at its core, trusting God. We do things by faith (trusting God). When they don't work out or we fail or are rejected, we rely on faith (trusting God) all the more. Then, we exercise some more faith (trusting God) and try something again. God rewards faith (Heb. 11:6).
I believe that God wants us to try, in faith, and fail, rather than not try. I have heard people I trust tell how they heard the Lord say to them that he wished they had tried things and failed more. God loves failures. He loves it when we try to do something, with a good heart, in faith; but fail.
Being stuck on "why?", is not faith. Some people say, "just get over it", which sounds insensitive. God does not say that. He says, "follow me".
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