"Hey God, Do You Know What You're Doing?"

 

When things aren’t turning out the way we wished they would, or are taking too long, or in some ways aren’t meeting our expectations, we can sometimes wonder if God really knows what He’s doing.  Wars, diseases, misfortunes, crime, injustice, and any other number of things can push us in the direction of questioning God’s thinking, motivations, or ability. We have the story of Lazarus in the Book of John where Lazarus dies and several people are essentially telling Jesus He blew it.

 

John 11:32 – “…Lord, if You had been here,

my brother wouldn’t have died.”

 

Things to think about:

·       Even if we won’t say it out loud, haven’t we all silently wondered, “Lord, what are You doing (or not doing)???”

·       In John 11, Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha (and a good friend of Jesus’) falls sick and dies while Jesus is in another town.  The sisters sent word to Him that Lazarus was sick and beckoned Him to come see about him.

o   But Jesus said that his “sickness isn’t unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of Man may be glorified through it.”  He then stayed two more days before going to Bethany where Lazarus and his family lived.

o   By the time He got there, Lazarus had been dead for four days.

·       Now comes the second guessing!

o   John 11:20 – Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord if You had been here, my brother would not have died.  But even now, I know that whatever You ask of God, He will give it to You.”

o   John 11:32 – Then, when Mary came where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have dies.”

o   John 11:37 (the Jews) said, “could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?”

o   When things aren’t going the way WE want, rather than question our wisdom, we question God’s

·       Job 30:20-21 – Job speaking says, “I cry to you, and you don’t answer; I stand up, but you just look at me. You are cruel to me and attack me with the strength of your hand.”

·       Is it possible, just maybe, that something is going on that is beyond our limited reasoning abilities???

o   Elihu, a young man in the story of Job, confronts Job and his three friends

o   Job 33:12 - “But I tell you, in this you are not right, for God is greater than any mortal. Why do you complain to Him that he responds to no one’s words?”

o   And again, Elihu says to Job in verses 29-30 – “God does all these things to a person - twice, even three times – to turn them back from The Pit, that the light of life may shine on them.”

·       And when we don’t understand, this is the beginning of faith.  God is at work, doing something more awesome and important than our feeble minds can comprehend.  And He always does it out of love and for our own good.

o   Isaiah 55:8-9 - “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

o   Psalm 36:7 - How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
    People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.