Why?

WHY? What person, whether Christian or not, has not asked God or a supreme diety of some belief, that question, when something has gone wrong in their life or life experience? There are dozens of examples in the Bible of folks asking God that same but profound question. In each life, there are times when we observe things that seem unjust or undeserved, such as when good and noble folks suffer loss or injustices, while bad folks enjoy prosperity.

As previously mentioned, there are numerous examples in scripture where saints would wonder why bad things happened. There are many good books out there written to tackle this matter. I have recently experienced a small bit of revelation during a recent prayer time, concerning this subject, that I would like to share with you. You see it is a complex subject matter to pursue why bad things happen, or even why good things happen (but we usually don’t care as much about why something good happened, do we?). The key issue is something simple however. It is FAITH. Why faith you ask?

Faith is important because it is absolutely essential to understand one reason why God doesn’t make it a practice to always answer an individual’s inquiry as to “why”. If God made it a practice to tell you why things are/have been the way they are, you wouldn’t need faith would you? If we read and believe simple facts such as God is in control, and all things work together for good for all who love God and all who are called of His purpose, then we must have faith that God has done, will continue to do, and allow what He does for the good (especially of His children). If He answered the why question, then we would not have to have faith, but we would have knowledge instead.

Remember, in Hebrews 11, faith is what pleases God, not necessarily knowledge. If you only believed in God because you had knowledge of Him, that would not be faith, would it? You say, “well I would have faith if I only saw a miracle, or saw God”. Really? There are many examples of folks in the Bible who saw miracles and still did not believe. On the flip side, those with faith, usually then saw a miracle or God affirmed their faith by some manifestation of a miracle or other experience of the divine.

One of my favorite examples of this is found in the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead in John Chapter 11. It is recorded that when Jesus came to raise Lazarus, he had been sick and finally died four days earlier. The two sisters, Mary and Martha had been caring for him, and most likely praying for him, to be healed. However, Lazarus died. Jesus arrives four days later. Martha greets Jesus and tells him that if He would have been there, her brother would not have died. Jesus tells Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" . At this point Martha answers, “Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, which has come into the world.” This answer confirmed her faith in Jesus and the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus followed. You see, Martha looked right past the obvious thought to ask Jesus: “why did my brother die, when you could have saved him?” She simply confirmed that she had faith even though she didn’t really understand why things had transpired the way they did.

In summary, the realization and practice of simple childlike faith that all things are possible with God and that His promises are true, simply makes the “why” question all but irrelevant, when compared to the omniscience and omnipotence of the King of Kings. Don’t feel bad though if you ask why, from time to time. When I have those moments, I read the book of Job. What a great little book in the Old Testament, that grapples with this idea of “why”. Job and his friends sat around and discussed such profound subjects as “why”, and finally God shows up and puts it all in perspective by asking these “great and wise” (in their opinion) gentlemen, dozens of cosmic- class inquiries to put to rest who was, is, and always shall be the final authority in all matters. Not to worry, if you still feel compelled to ask God “why”, concerning any issue. He may not answer you, but remember He loves us so much that He gave His Son for our redemption, and the scriptures bear witness to His faithfulness in His love for His creation, and me and you.

Blessings!
George