Bible Text: Romans 11:34 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Romans 11:34

“I don’t understand God,” were the words that came up in a conversation that I had with a young man. It wasn’t that he was antagonistic or extremely skeptical. He seemed to be sincere. “But do you realize,” I countered, that God is God and if He was as easy to understand as your friends, you would no longer have a sovereign God but someone as human and as flawed as you are.” Then I asked, “What is it that you find difficult to understand about God?”

My experience is that this question immediately divides people into two camps— those who clearly are outside the household of faith and those who believe in God yet struggle with some issues—usually why God doesn’t answer prayer according to their desires. The first group are the ones who are looking for an excuse to justify shutting God out of their lives. Their responses are a variety of the following: “I don’t understand why God allows suffering, why he allows evil in our world, why He doesn’t step in and stop the tsunamis from wiping out the lives of thousands of innocent people,” and so forth.

There is another question I ask—one that strikes closer to the heart of our lives—“What do you understand about God?” That’s the one I put to you. To balance what you don’t understand, sit down and make of list of what you clearly understand about God.

If you are unsure of God’s existence or—to put it plainly—have no relationship with God and, perhaps, do not want one– your list may be very short. You may respond that you believe there is a God, but you are uncertain as to who He is, and how involved He is in the affairs of humankind.

Should you find yourself in that category the first thing you need to do is find out who God is. The answer to that question won’t be discovered in a philosophy class or by discussions with people who are as ignorant of God’s nature and character as are you. Go to the source of our knowledge about God—the Bible, the most unique book in all history. It tells you who He is and how in love He sent first the prophets and then His own son to show us who He is and how great is our need of knowing His design and purpose in the world.

Now if you find yourself among those who are believers yet honestly find it difficult to understand why God does or does not do something, you need to go deeper. You freely acknowledge, I would think, that God is a loving God. The proof of that is the coming of God’s son into the world. You also understand that God is not man and is sovereign, which simply means He does what He chooses to do, yet God is honor-bound to keep His word. He neither lies to His children nor deceives them. He disciplines them—something which we don’t like–and He reserves explanations for some things in that should God choose to tell us why He does some things, we still couldn’t understand. You understand that the Bible is God’s sourcebook for your life wherein He reveals His purpose for your life and His will for your conduct. Focus on what you do know, and the more you know about God, the greater will be your personal knowledge of Him. You will then find that what you don’t know isn’t nearly as important as what you do know. It is easier, then, to take some things by faith, leaving in His strong Hand what He is best at doing. That’s what faith is about.

Resource reading: Job 40