READING: Deuteronomy 28-29, Luke 4:1-30
I used to think about questions I might want to ask God when I get to heaven—questions like:
- Why’d You create a world in the first place where sin would happen?
- Why did You sometimes take Your time answering my prayers—if, as it seemed at times, you answered at all?
- Why did You take the life of that baby (or child, or teen) whose funeral service I officiated?
- Why’d you let my church go through that conflict? or, the global church to go through persecution?
“Why, God,” I had planned to ask about a number of things. Of course, I could turn the questions around and have the same wonderings. Why, God, did You love me enough to die for me? Why didn’t You give up on me when I first rejected the gospel for months? Why did You give me such an undeserved gift in my wife, Pam? Why did You call me to ministry, knowing all my past, present, and future failures? The questions continue . . . .
What I’ve learned over the years, though, is that God doesn’t tell us everything. Sometimes He doesn’t us the details about the “why’s” and “how’s” of His plan. What He does give us, though, is precisely what we need “so that we may follow all the words of [His] law” (Deut 29:29). The hidden things belong to Him, and we need not worry about them. Our responsibility is simply to follow all He’s already given us.
PRAYER: “Help me, God, not to get consumed by the unknowns today.”
DAILY ACTION STEP: If you’re caught in worry about the unknown, confess those worries and do whatever you know you need to do.
TOMORROW’S READING: Deuteronomy 30-32, Luke 4:31-5:11