No More Whys: When God's Comfort is Better than Answers

The revelation came gently to my soul, like a butterfly landing on a pile of mismatched items (concerns, questions, and the like)....it was a welcome visitor yesterday, as I read this book, and found truths that penetrated this second time around.  The end-of-chapter questions really stir up my soul and cause me to run to Christ in a new way.  Then this morning, listening to this sermon, and the message came again:  put aside the why's and find comfort in our Sovereign Lord.  Again, it penetrated my soul.  What a surprise to hear the same message again, just a day later, and have it seal on my soul what God is saying to me of late.

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Do you struggle in hard times, and beyond, to wonder why?  I have struggled with this, though the crisis is years behind me.  The after-math still plagues me and causes me to doubt the love of God.  Perhaps you have been through this.  What I didn't realize is that these doubts are keeping me from the plans God has to use the pain for my good and His glory.  I have resisted the comfort of God, in some ways, because I have not fully trusted His goodness in allowing all that happened back in Colorado.  My health and life had fallen apart, and I was left wondering why?  But yesterday it became clear to me that that was no longer an option.  No longer will I cling to my silent demands that God explain Himself.  I will simply place those questions on the altar, and place my full confidence in God and His goodness.  And wouldn't you know it, but I feel freer, lighter in my soul, and have a closeness to Christ that I did not know even just a day ago.  I invite you to take this journey as well.

Each of us has acute pain, and residual pain.  That is life in a fallen world, and we cannot escape it.  Even Christ asked 'why?' on the cross....But we must choose, like Job, to put aside our initial questions and frustration, and by an act of will, accept the sovereignty of God as our comfort.  I believe this is the beginning of a second level of healing for me, for anyone who takes this road.  Even Job says that he was able to not only hear of the Lord, but see him with his eyes....That is something I am so excited to experience.  I have not been walking far from God, but the hope of a deeper relationship with Him is so exciting!

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So I set the whys up on a high shelf, a place where I can take them down and remember all God took me through, and how He was faithful to provide and protect.  I will take them down and share them with friends and my children, some day.  But I will not question God's goodness and sovereignty any longer.  In return, I know that God will offer deeper comfort and relationship than I have known, comfort that I can share with others.  I pray that you will know this rich comfort as well, and that you will not doubt God's goodness as I have.  Our hope is in a God that loves us enough to allow both the good and the bad into our lives.  And that is something that will quiet my soul, when the 'whys' come back to trouble me.  Surely we have a great and trustworthy God.  I pray you know His love, even today.

Abundant blessings be yours,

Ruth