Are you trying to put God in a box, telling Him how He should act, what He should do in your current situation and how He should resolve it? I think it’s something we’ve probably all been guilty of at times.
Recently we had a guest speaker come to our church. Keith Fellows is involved with SECET and teaches Christian Education at our local high school Vincentia High. I’m thankful that in Australia, we still have the opportunity for Christians to go in to state schools and share God’s Word with those who may never go to church or hear about God anywhere else.
Keith Fellows spoke about the way people, try to put God in a box. Have you ever been guilty of trying to tell God how and when He should act? I know I have.
Often we can do that particularly when it is something we desperately want to happen. Years ago, when my mother was suffering from cancer, I prayed desperately for her healing. Instead God brought her to Himself and then chose to take her to be with Him.
My mother was so much more than my mother. She was also one of my closest friends. For a long time I was angry with God because He had not answered my prayers the way I thought He ought. I believed God was capable of healing even something as dire as cancer, so why hadn’t he? Throughout that time, I never turned away from God but I certainly let him know I was displeased.
In the years since, I’ve had some inklings of good God brought out of that difficult time but I’ve also come to understand I may never know this side of heaven why God chose to act as He did. But He is the creator and ultimately he knows what is best for each of His creations. God works in His own time and His own ways which we are sometimes incapable of undertstanding. See Isaiah 55:8.
Over the next couple of blogs I’m going to look at several people from Scripture, the way they tried to box God in with their expectations of what God should do and how God responded to each one. These people include the Samaritan woman in John 4, Peter, the thief on the cross, the crowds and priests at the scene of the cross, Elijah, and the apostle John. I hope you’ll join me in looking at how God responded to these people and their expectations, and how God refused to be boxed in.
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