“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” Isaiah 55:8
Have you tried to do everything right, prayed, and still ended up confused about what God was doing?
Nina arrived home from work in tears. It was the second time that year someone else at work had become pregnant. “I don’t understand you, God!” she thought.
What troubled Nina most wasn’t just the disappointment. It was the confusion. She thought she’d done everything right. Why did obedience still lead here? A wise pastor once said that God will either give us what we ask, or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything He knows.[1]
We long for answers that satisfy us. Instead, we’re invited to trust a God we don’t fully understand. In scripture, God says, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts … And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine” (Isaiah 55:8). Those words might feel distant until we open the Bible and watch how God works. There, we read about a runaway welcomed home instead of rejected. A prisoner forgotten for years who later saves nations. An execution that becomes the turning point of history. Again and again, the Bible shows people couldn’t see what God was doing while they were in the middle of it.
As we read those stories, we begin to recognize that although God may be harder to predict than we hoped, He’s kinder than we imagined. We may still ache for explanations—it’s human to want them, but God can handle our questions.
When God’s ways stretch your understanding, you’re invited to trust something deeper than your understanding. He’s shown His heart across centuries. And He does not change.
[1] Keller, Timothy. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. New York: Dutton, 20
