The Mysteries of God

Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens – what can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave – what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea. Job 11: 7 – 9

It’s simply a fact that life is such a mystery sometimes, isn’t it? If we ever slow down enough to think about it, often it just doesn’t make sense. What is it all for? What is our purpose? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does God not put an end to all the evil around us?

We all know the story of Job, “a blameless and upright” man who had been blessed with much wealth, but whose faith was seriously tested. After losing everything, including his family and all His possessions, and enduring a terrible illness, his friends tried to persuade him that surely he was suffering as punishment for his sins.

Yet, Job refused to believe he had sinned and he questioned God as to why He would let these things happen. But even while doing so, he continued to express his assurance and trust in God and in his devotion to Him. Finally, with much sorrow and shame, he admitted that God is just too great and wonderful for us to understand. And because of His faithfulness, God blessed him once again – with more than ever before.

What a lesson we can all learn from Job, for we too often question God. We are confronted with mystery all around us. There is so much about our world and about our Creator and Sustainer of life that we don’t understand, but yet this very uncertainty is what can often make life seem more fascinating and unpredictable.

Along with the difficult times, there is so much goodness, beauty, and a pattern to life that we can’t begin to comprehend. Yet we love the mystery of it all – without it, life could become mundane and boring. God knows us too well. He knows we like the hidden, secret truths that need to be discovered and revealed. How much knowledge He has given man to understand through the ages, but still there are few things we understand fully. There always seems to be some element missing – something we don’t or can’t understand. They seem to be the “sacred secrets” that God knows about life and which men desperately need to know.

But do we really? Isn’t that what faith is all about – believing even when we don’t see? But even with the deepest of faith, life can often seem so unfair and uncertain, and we long for answers to understand why things happen as they do. I am sure the questions so many of us have will never fully be answered until we stand face to face with God. Then it will become clear. The full picture will be before us, and God will fill in the “pieces” that have been missing.

God in His Sovereignty knows best and there are just some things we are not to know in this life. He will reveal them in His own time. Until then, He simply and lovingly asks that we trust in Him.

Prayer

Dear God, thank you for the mysteries of life and of your kingdom. Increase our faith and trust in you and help us to understand and accept that some things are just not meant for us to know. Your greatness, your glory will be revealed to us at the appropriate time. Thank you for your love and grace.  Amen