When We Don’t Understand Why

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Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, November 28th. God always has something to teach us, even in the most confusing situations. Let’s listen closely and find solid guidance in Scripture when we don’t understand why.

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I want you to turn, if you will, to First Peter. And Peter is writing to Christians who are undergoing difficulty and hardship and pain. So, let’s just start with this sixth verse of the fifth chapter. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” But listen to what he says. He says, “…but resist.” firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.” And then watch this tenth verse, and I’ll tell you why I want you to see this in a moment. After you have suffered for a little while, Notice he says, a little while. Well, somebody says, yeah, but this has been going on for eight years, ten years, or twenty years in my life. He says, a little while. Time is not the same with Almighty God. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. So, when we think about how God works and how He operates and so forth, I think about oftentimes our first question is, God, why would You let this happen? That’s not the most important question. And so what I want us to look at this morning is this simple question. When we don’t understand why, then what? So I want us to think about how people respond for a few moments and then how we ought to respond. We’re not talking about why because we could talk forever about why. But that’s not the question. And that’s not even the question God wants me to ask. The question is not, why did God let it happen? But now that it has happened, now that it’s going on in a person’s life, how am I to respond? First of all, do you see these things in your life as God getting your attention about something? And that’s always the right response. God, are you getting my attention about something in this? And sometimes He does have to use very strong means to get us to focus on the fact that He’s in charge. We’re to walk in His way and His will, and disobedience will bring some form of discipline. Then you have to ask this question, and is this something that God is doing? Is God somehow testing my faith? Does God want to strengthen my faith? Now watch this. Listen carefully. He doesn’t ever just want to test your faith. He wants to try and test your faith in order to grow it. He’s not, in other words, He knows how you’re going to respond, but He wants you to learn to respond in the right fashion. And that is when we get tested by whatever we’re facing in life, God wants us to respond to recognize this is a test, not just to see what I’ll do. God already knows what you’re going to do. He knows how you’re going to respond. But He wants us to understand this is always a growth area in my life. in your life whenever we get tested we can’t figure it out we don’t understand what god’s doing whatever is going on remember this he is in the process of strengthening your faith because we’ll face things that we can’t fix nobody else can fix and we have to trust him And so, the question is, am I going to trust Him or am I going to get all out of shape and say, why God have you allowed this to happen in my life? So, our purpose in this message is not to answer why, but how do you respond? So, these are a number of ways you could respond. Now, the second question is, do I even have a right to ask God why? So, let’s think about it for a moment. It’s a natural response. God, why would You let this happen to me? Why would You let this happen to my child? Why would You let this happen to me financially? We have a right to ask the question, why? But you can’t stop there. And once you and I get past the why, And begin to concentrate on the real question is, how am I to respond to this? Because the way I respond will make what I suffer valuable or invaluable. If I don’t respond correctly, then I’m going to lose an awesome opportunity of blessing. If I respond in the right fashion, I can ask Him what He’s up to, but my faith, my trust, my surrender, my yieldedness must absolutely overpower all these questions I may have. Remember this, every test, every trial in life, no matter what the nature of it is, it involves my faith. Do I believe Him or do I not believe Him? Am I going to trust Him or not going to trust Him? He won’t tell me why. He didn’t give me any understanding. But how am I going to respond? Well, we remember back in Isaiah fifty-five what He said. He said, Now my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Think about what that means. That means no matter how I may think through things, God knows what I cannot know. No matter what the situation or circumstance, God knows it perfectly. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts and my ways are higher than your ways, which is His way of saying, you won’t ever figure some things out, but I’ve got them figured out. And I’m going to be with you in it. And what I want you to do is I want you to grow in every single circumstance of life. And think about this. Why waste the time of hurting and pain and suffering and whether it’s financial or physical or emotional? Why waste all that time and not get anything from it when you can profit from every single heartache, burden and trial? Some time ago, I was walking through my house just like I would normally do, and I tripped and fell. I don’t know why I tripped one foot against the other. And so, here I’m lying in the floor, and I’m lying there. I can tell you exactly what I thought. It’s funny today, but it wasn’t funny then. And that is, I asked, God, what are You up to at this point? That was my first response. Well, what are You up to? Well, he was up to me soon getting in an ambulance. And I can tell you how many times I’ve been blessed during this painful time. And so, I broke a couple of places in my pelvis and did something to my shoulder and also to my knee and all of that. But I did not happen to have an operation. God let me fall, but He could have let me hit my head and so forth. So, I had some things to be thankful for, though I was hurting. And I thank You, God. But my first question was, God, what are You up to? Because here’s my personal conviction. A lot of folks would not agree. My personal conviction is if you’re walking in the Spirit of God, there are no accidents. God is in control of your life. He knows what He’s up to. He doesn’t promise to give you any answers, but He promises to be with you. But the first response was, God, what are you up to? And I think that ought to be the response of everybody when something happens. What are you up to? Not what have I done? What’s this? But God, what are you up to? And so, He’s in the process of doing something good in our life. And you know, one of the good things in my behalf is this. I’ve studied the Word of God long enough to know what to expect in certain situations and circumstances. And that is, I knew that God had something in mind, though I didn’t like what was happening, though I knew I was going to miss a few very pleasant things, and didn’t know I was going to miss it all. But I knew that God had stopped me for a reason. Now remember this, when God stops you, He stops us for some specific reason. And so I began to ask Him, Lord, what are you saying to me? The most important thing He said to me was five weeks later, He stopped me. He said, you need to slow down. Well, I didn’t think I was moving very fast that morning, but that wasn’t the issue. The issue, I’ve been moving fast all of my life. And I did understand that. But it took five weeks later before He said, this is the reason I stopped you. And so, I can say, thank You, Lord. Thank You, thank You, thank You. The moment I fell, I knew God was up to something. From a human point of view, anybody could say, yes, you just tripped and fell. Well, that’s true from a human point of view. But thank God I didn’t let it stop there but ask Him, Lord, what are You up to? And while He didn’t tell me then, and while He let some time go by, you know what? God was still being good, no matter what. And the big question is, as we began, not, God, why did You let this happen? But how am I to respond to all this? So, I’m going to give you two or three verses of Scripture in a moment. I want you to be sure to jot them down. Immediately remember when something happens, the first thought ought to be that you’re a child of God and He’s watching over you. It doesn’t make any difference what happens. That, listen, that doesn’t come and go. You may feel God’s presence or you may not feel God’s presence, but if you’re a child of God, He knows what’s happening and He knows exactly where you are in His plan and purpose for your life. The second thing, how we should respond is this. Immediately, we should recall what God says. I am with you always. So, I know He’s with me. I know He’s present. I know He’s there. I’m in His presence. You’re in His presence. No matter what’s happening, you’re in the presence of God. So, He knows what’s happening. And we need to recall that and remember that. In other words, our first thoughts ought not to be this and that and some other things, but it ought to be all about God. Thank You, Father, I’m in Your presence. Thank You. You know what You’re doing and You know why You’re letting this happen. Whatever’s happening is in His sight, in His presence, and in His permissive will. He is allowing it to happen no matter what. And then, of course, acknowledge the fact that whatever the reason is, He’s doing it. That is, He has a purpose. This isn’t some accident. He has a purpose. I know He’s with me. I know He knows my heart. He said He’d never leave me nor forsake me. So therefore, God, I know there’s a purpose for this and I’m going to trust You, whatever it is. And then thank Him. You say, can you really and truly thank Him for these things? Yes, you can. Because what happens is He’ll show you something you can be thankful for. I can be thankful I didn’t fall down those steps. I can be thankful that I didn’t trip and fall and hurt somebody else. I can be thankful that I wasn’t unconscious. I could have fallen unconscious. And lying there till somebody found me. Watch this, First Thessalonians chapter five, verse eighteen. Giving, listen, he says, giving thanks in all things, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Because there will be something, and I just mentioned two or three things I could be thankful for. Whatever’s going on in your life, you can be thankful. And so, this is why I say to you week after week, you should start the day off with the Word of God. It’s like ammunition because Satan may shoot at you in some way or the other, or you’ll come to some trial or some heartache. But if the Word of God is in your mind, on your lips, in your heart, in your spirit, immediately God is going to bring it to your mind. He says, giving thanks always for everything in Christ Jesus. A second verse. I thought, well, Lord, and I’m always thinking, here’s what I’ve preached to others. What does He say in Romans eight twenty-eight? God causes all things to work together for good to those who are called according to His purpose. So, listen, when you’ve got the Word of God in your heart, here’s what’s going to happen. The Holy Spirit is going to bring to your mind what you need to be reminded of at that moment. And so, those verses came to my mind. I’m going to give thanks and everything. God, You know what I’m feeling. I’m giving, I’m going to thank You anyway. You said You always have a purpose. You’re going to work it for my good. I don’t know what that is. I’m going to thank You, God, no matter what. And then I come back to our original Scripture here in verse ten of First Peter, chapter five. After you’ve suffered for a little while, you say, well, how long is a little while? I don’t know the answer to that. After you’ve suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, listen, the God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, we don’t like Christians now, will, watch this, will Himself, not somebody else, will Himself do four things in your life. Perfect you, confirm you, strengthen you, and establish you. And so, what’s He really saying about all this? He’s really saying this. God’s going to work something good in your life. And what He does, He uses four different words to say, this is what God is going to do. He’s going to perfect, He’s going to complete something He had in mind for you. He’s going to establish you. He’s going to strengthen you. That is, watch this. Any trial that comes in our life, you and I should not end up like it started. Strengthen, establish you, perfect you, work complete you. These are the things that God is doing in your life. And so, when I think about that, then I think about, yes, I can thank Him for it. Because what He’s doing is revealing His will and purpose and plan. And somebody asked me, several people asked me, you wouldn’t do that again, would you? If I could get the same results, yes. If I could get the same results, yes. Do I like it? No. looking at a wall which was very close. And it was about two o’clock in the morning. And the devil was there, naturally, saying, look at you now. Look at you now. You may never walk again. Who cares now? And then I realized, Satan, who cares now? Because that’s not who I’m following. And God just began to give me these verses of Scripture. Verses that are so simple, giving thanks and everything. Listen, after about four or five verses, you know what? The wall wasn’t all that close and the room wasn’t all that dark because God was there. That’s the reason. So, all of this depends upon your relationship to God. If you’ve never trusted Him as your Savior, think about this. You’ve got to go through trials and heartaches and burdens by yourself. Your friends can help you to some degree, but not fully. They can’t do anything these three or four verses can do for you. Giving thanks always for all things. God causes all things to work together for good. I knew He’d cause something good to come out of this. Did that stop the pain? No. But it made me assured of this, there’s a limitation to it. And God sets a limitation to every trial, every heartache, every burden. We just have to respond the right way. And so, I would say to you this morning, if you’ve never trusted Jesus as your Savior, you’re going to go through some difficulty, hardship, and pain. And that’s the world you and I live in. Think about it. What kind of world we live in. And not only that, you say, well, I don’t think that that’ll necessarily happen to me. If you’re not saved, let’s hope it does so it’ll drive you to Jesus. Because whatever it takes to get you to God is good, no matter what that might be. Or if you are a believer this morning and you’ve been going through difficulty and hardship and pain and arguing with God about it and giving Him a lot of questions, maybe you ought to just take these notes and go over them yourself and work on two or three of these verses. Now, watch this. The Word of God, the Word of God is like a shield to us that no matter how fiery and hot the trial may be, the Word of God is like a shield. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I’m going to cause this to turn out to something good. I’m building strength in your life. I’m building confidence in your life. And I’m establishing you in your faith. God always has something good if we trust Him.

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Thank you for listening to When We Don’t Understand Why. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.