Why?

If you are anything like me, you have already asked God many times this simple one word question … Why?

Things intrude into our lives many times that we don't want anywhere near us; and when they do we have been known to ask God out of frustration … Why? Why me Lord? Why did this thing or that thing happen? Why after all the prayer Lord; why didn't we see a change? Why didn't you answer?

I want to address these questions that I've had myself. I'm going to start with something fundamental and basic; it's the foundation that I have built my faith on, and that is … the Truth of the Word of God … as I understand it.

If there is one statement about God that you can stand on, it is this …

Numbers 23:19 … "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"

God alone determines what is truth and what is a lie. If it comes out of the mouth of God … it is truth … as He has declared it. If He said it, He will do it; if He has spoken it, He will make it good.

God never forgets His spoken word or that He has made a promise. He foresees all events, He is able to perform and keep all He has said about these events, and He is true to His word … He knows no other way to be. Therefore whatever is spoken by Him will never be altered, but will most certainly be fulfilled.

Look at these scriptures …

Jeremiah 1:12 … "I will hasten (watch over) my word to perform it."

1st Samuel 3:19 … "And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground."

What this is alluding to is that Samuel's words as a prophet were fulfilled; they didn't fall to the ground … such as an arrow falls to the ground before it reaches the intended mark, or a spear that falls to the ground short of its target. If God watched over Samuel's words to bring them to pass; is it unreasonable to believe that God will make sure His own words never fall to the ground short of their intended mark.

Isaiah 55:11 … "My word that goeth forth out of My mouth shall not return unto Me void, (without producing any effect, useless) but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."

I started with this basic thought; if God said it, He will do it. You can trust … the nature of God … to never change. His nature will not allow Him to lie even if He wanted to. God's word is truth because God is truth. He is consistently the same. What He was yesterday, He is today, and will be tomorrow.

So how does all this tie in with our question … why didn't God answer?

I contend that God did answer in every case, simply because God has promised to answer when we call upon Him.

It sounds as if God gave one of those promises in Psalm 91:15 … "He (that's us) shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him."

This is the same God that watches over His word so it won't fall to the ground.

In the past, after praying for things I felt the Lord wanted me to pray about … like healing for example … when nothing happened or when the person died instead of being healed; I asked the Lord why, but I never liked the answer He gave me.

The answer was … "I want you to learn to trust Me." If I were to ask the Lord the same question again; because I know more about Him now, His nature, who He is; today He would just simply answer … "Trust Me."

That's what He always told me. So, I don't ask why anymore. I know what He will say. Trust Me. But I did ask Him this question a couple of times … "Why pray? It doesn't seem to do any good."

Do you know what He told me? "Pray because I ask you to. Don't worry about the answer; I will do what needs to be done. I want you to be obedient."

My daughter was asking God one day how she was supposed to pray about a certain problem and the Lord spoke these words to her … "Do not concern yourself with how to pray over this thing. It is not for you to tell Me what needs to be done. I already know. Just come to Me with a pleading spirit and need of My hand, and I will move. Do not burden yourself with the how."

God knows the problem and He already knows how to fix it. You can trust Him to do the right thing … even if it isn't always what we ask for.

You need to understand there is nothing you can do that will make Him do what you want Him to do. He is not obligated to us for anything. We receive everything through His grace, including His mercy. It's not even about our faithfulness to Him; we don't earn His faithfulness. He can't help being anything other than what He is … faithful.

We never know what God is going to do next; but we always know … what He is going to be like. He's always going to be the same faithful, loving, kind and merciful God who loves us. Who knows … the next time you pray for something … He just might give you exactly what you are praying for.

Be obedient … pray, trust God and go on. I know from experience … this is all we can really do anyway. The answer is up to Him.


Comments welcome.