Posted on November 22, 2021 by Catey Stover in Victory Call
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Life can be confusing, disappointing, and often impossible to understand. It seems universal to want to understand why things happen. Often we find no answers.
Who of us has not experienced the cry of another asking, “why did this happen?” And we are baffled to give a satisfying answer that sounds anything but trite. Probably the wisest answer is, “I don’t know.”
It makes us uncomfortable to not have answers, so we try to fill the looming silence with guesses of what lessons God may be trying to teach us. Yet, of course, we don’t really know. How could we know? God’s plans and purposes escape us.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?”(Romans 11:33-34).
How can the finite understand the Infinite?
How can the mortal understand the Immortal?
How can the temporal understand the Eternal?
How can the created understand the Creator?
I AM is unsearchable in His judgments and inscrutable in His ways. We cannot fully understand Him. We can know Him, but we cannot comprehend Him. If we could comprehend God, He would be no greater than we are. When we cannot understand God’s ways, we are not without hope.
According to verse 9, His ways are HIGHER than our ways. His thoughts are HIGHER than our thoughts. It’s not just that God’s thoughts and ways are different from ours, but higher. It isn’t that there is no answer; it is that the answer or purpose is beyond our finite ability to understand.
From Father’s perspective, His way is higher, better, and yes, even good. We still don’t understand it and it still does not feel good. By no means am I minimizing the human pain and grief we may experience, it is very real. But when the backdrop of our pain is anchored in trust in a sovereign and good God, there is hope. We know that God does know and understand it all.
Be confident. There is understanding and it resides in I AM. So though I don’t know, I AM does.
Written By Diane Hunt: Diane Hunt serves on the board of America’s Keswick and provides ministry support from her home in North Carolina. She is also a biblical counselor and women’s event speaker. For more information about having Diane speak at your next event please contact her at dhunt@americaskeswick.org.
Think About This: “Often times God demonstrates His faithfulness in adversity by providing for us what we need to survive. He does not change our painful circumstances. He sustains us through them.” – Charles Stanley
The Daily Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 15 | You can download our 2021 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here.
This Week’s Verse to Memorize: Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. –Ephesians 5:1-2
Consider a retreat at America’s Keswick retreat center.
