God You Are Confusing Me

Elisabeth Elliot, whose first husband, Jim Elliot, was one of the five missionaries killed by the Auca Indians in 1956, and whose second husband died of cancer, tells of visiting a shepherd in the mountains of North Wales. One by one, he would grab the rams by their horns and fling them into a tank of antiseptic. They would struggle to climb out, but the sheep dog would snarl in their faces to force them back in. Just as they were about to climb up the ramp, the shepherd would catch them by the horns with a wooden implement, spin them around, and force them under again, holding them completely under for a few seconds. The sheep didn’t have a clue about what was happening

Mrs. Elliot observes, "I’ve had some experiences in my life that have made me feel very sympathetic to those poor rams--I couldn’t figure out any reason for the treatment I was getting from the Shepherd I trusted. And He didn’t give me a hint of explanation."

She found out something that all of us have learned by experience. The Christian life of faith and obedience to God is not always or even usually easy. There are several reasons for this. For one thing, doubt and unbelief get into our hearts when we wait and wait for the promises of God to be fulfilled, but we fail to see results. We pray consistently and we believe to the best of our abilities but trusting God becomes a real challenge because of the long delays in experiencing the fulfillment of God’s promises.Another reason it is sometimes difficult to maintain a life of faith and obedience is because God often directs our lives in ways that make no sense to us. He may tell us to do things that seem detrimental to our own lives and through His sovereignty he often chooses to guide our lives in mysterious ways. Even though we are often confused and ask "Why?” God rarely decides to explain to us what he is doing or why he is directing us the way he is.

You should trust and obey God because He is faithful to His word, even though He often works in unexpected in unexplainable ways

In other words you should trust and obey God in every type of circumstance even though you may not understand what God is doing or why he is doing it or even when he will fulfill his promises to you.

Sometimes in your faith walk you, like all the saints, are going to experience the same kind of confusing divine postponement as you pray and look for the fulfillment of God promises. It may be a long delay in the salvation of a loved one. It may be your prayer for the healing of your body that goes unanswered despite your faith and obedience. It may be in seeking God’s provision for your needs but seeing no answers on the horizons, or it may be in some other area of your life. There will come a time when God does not work when or how you expect him to. God does not explain himself to us and he does not work on our timetable. Yet you can be sure of this, God’s word is reliable and he will accomplish his promises. It may not be immediately but will be ultimately

There may the long times of confusing delay as you wait on God’s divine intervention in your life, but when he does act he brings joy to your life and praise to himself as we see in these two verses. Think back to when Abraham and Sarah did not wait on God but chose to intervene themselves and help God out by impregnating Hagar. Sarah got what she thought she wanted when Hagar conceived but she experienced sorrow rather than joy, trouble rather than triumph. This is a word of exhortation to all those who may be tempted to grow inpatient and through distrust not wait on God to act. For example in trying to get a lost husband saved you may resort to pressure instead of waiting on God. Or in your need for financial provision or blessing you may resort to human methods. Maybe you desire to grow your ministry and therefore resort to worldly methods. In all these examples you may get what you want and which you never had

Are You Trusting God...Even when it seems He's not working?