God’s Thoughts and Ways Are Not Ours

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 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

Isn’t it so hard to understand life sometimes? We question and try to make sense of it all, and sometimes we even question God. Why does our loving God let such painful and devastating things happen?

Perhaps it doesn’t necessarily mean that we don’t have faith in Him, but it shows our human frailty and our deep desire to understand. We want things to be logical, to make sense, to be just, or to have meaning, but sometimes this isn’t God’s way. It is difficult for us to comprehend that His thoughts and ways are “higher” than our own and that they have a purpose. His plan for the world was in place before He laid the foundation and life began. Yet, it is almost inconceivable for us to understand that He knew the end from the beginning and that all “the threads will weave together to make the perfect tapestry.”

We can’t understand his thoughts or His ways, but we can trust Him with our very lives and know that whatever may happen, it will be for some divine purpose. God in His Sovereignty will use “our threads”, our lives, to fit within His plan, and maybe someday as it all unfolds before us, we will understand, and it will all seem clear. But for now, we struggle with the whys, try to trust the One who knows, and go on.

Our amazing God of the universe is far beyond our limited ability to comprehend or understand. For He is infinite and full of mystery. He defies our attempts to define Him in any absolute way, and in this verse, He even speaks of the futility of our feeble attempts to do so. We have been given glimpses of His greatness and power throughout Scripture and still we fail to conceive of such a God.

Yet, we have seen evidence of His presence in our own lives and we know personally of His love and grace. We can look at all He has done and know that our God is able to do the impossible. Whom would we want with us besides Him when all else fails around us? Whom could we call out to in our time of greatest need? Who could love us more? In Proverbs 3: 5 – 6, we read: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

We must trust Him with all our hearts and with all our being – even when things don’t make sense around us. Often we can’t see what lies ahead and we feel helpless, alone, and frightened, but we can know His loving presence is with us, and we can lean on Him moment by moment as He carries us through the uncertain times. We have His promise that He will never leave us nor forsake us. Even when we can’t understand His ways and why things happen as they do, we can trust in Him. For He longs to make us part of His ending, and what an ending it will be, as we are promised life eternal with Him!

Prayer 

Our most gracious and holy God, there are so many things we don’t understand, but we know you do. Help us not “to lean on our own understanding”, but to trust in you and your love for us. May we be strengthened by your presence and look to you for peace and comfort. May we seek you, know you, and trust you with a deep, abiding faith. Amen