As I prepared to write this post, I saw several news stories cross my social media feed, enough to make me ask my husband what was going on. He always has the news on somewhere in the house, and he explained to me that there was yet another act of terrorism in a public setting with a tragic ending for many people.
It’s at times like this that ALL I want to do is ask Why God? Why did this happen?
It’s human nature to ask “why,” and starts almost as soon as we can talk.
As a child, I wanted an explanation for everything, just ask my mom. She would tell me to do something and I would ask Why? She would explain it and I would ask why about something in her explanation. I am sure I was exasperating as a child, but I simply wanted to know Why!
We however, do the same thing to God.
When tragedy strikes, when things don’t go our way, or they don’t work out the way we had hoped, we are left with questions and so we cry out to God. Sometimes with a sincere heart and sometimes with a I-demand-my-way attitude.
- Why do bad things happen?
- Why didn’t God stop this from happening?
- Why did they leave me?
- Why do they not like me?
- Why did I not get the job, the raise, the house, or _____ ? (fill in the blank).
I’ve always heard that we are not to ask God “why”, but rather, we are to ask:
- What can I learn from this?
- What do I need to do?
Warren Wiersbe once said, “We live by God’s promises, not by God’s explanations.”
As a child of God, trust is an integral part of our walk with Him. If we don’t trust, then it is hard to have faith and believe. We demand explanations, instead of leaning into His promises. I am letting go of my need to know, and clinging to the promises of God.
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Hebrews 11:1 (NLT)
As the WHY questions burned in my mind and heart all night long, I kept hearing these lyrics of a hymn I sang growing up in church:
King David knew what it meant to lean into the arms of God and be at peace in the midst of the chaos and storms. I don’t have the answers that will calm my heart or ease my mind, but I can lean into God and trust in the Promises of His Word.
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I am passionate about people walking in their kingdom purpose. I am a natural born encourager on fire for Jesus and I love to inspire others to see the God potential inside of them. I am an author, speaker, pastor and the founder of “Dare 2 Hear,” ministry training individuals in hearing the voice of God. I’m passionate about equipping individuals, so they can go deeper in their relationship with God. My new book, The Gift of Prophetic Encouragement: Hearing the Words of God for Others, released August 21, 2018 with Chosen Books.
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Last week I asked God why He allowed something to happen that we thought shouldn’t have happened in regard to our adversity. Then as soon as I finished asking why I quickly told Him that I knew He was going to do something amazing with that and that we were looking forward to how it would turn out. And you know what? It truly was amazing! Not what we would have thought would happen at all! God is so faithful and really, he doesn’t mind the Why questions, as long as we remember that He works all things out for His glory. And in this case, oh yes, He gave us the victory and He received the glory!