Job LXXV

 There is a purpose, and there is a plan, even when our human intellect cannot perceive them. If God Himself said that our ways are not His ways, and our thoughts are not His thoughts, then we have to allow for the reality that He will not go about accomplishing something the way we would have, by the same route, or in the same manner.

I keep returning to the idea that we must have absolute trust in the God we serve, and that level of trust can only come about if we know Him. A superficial understanding of the nature and character of God cannot bring you to a place of fully trusting Him. It’s easy to trust when all is well, and things are running smoothly. It’s far more challenging to do it when everything seems to be falling apart, and every avenue you take ends up being a dead-end road.

Sometimes, we ask questions to which we get no answer because we already know the answer; we’re just hoping for a different one. Last year, we got to do something I’d dreamt of doing since the girls were still in diapers. We got to go on a road trip. I know my dreams are simpler than other men’s, but it’s the way I’ve always been. I never dreamt of a Lamborghini, a gold-plated toilet, a palatial estate, or a private jet, but that road trip was something I wanted to do before the good Lord called me home, and it came together quite unexpectedly.

One of my wife’s clients has a condo in Florida, and on a whim, she asked if we wanted to go and spend a week there. Not one to turn down a free week on the beach, even if it was in December, we made the necessary plans, and when discussion of how we’d get there inevitably ensued, I told my wife I wanted to drive. She agreed, albeit grudgingly, and that was the end of that.

I should have known better than to expect my dream of a road trip to match the reality of it, but I was so enthusiastic about the prospect that I didn’t really think it through. Since we left at a little past midnight, the first few hours were everything I’d imagined: Me driving, my kids sleeping in their car seats, and my wife nodding off in the front.

Then the girls woke up, and the constant chorus of “Are we there yet?” started in earnest. Obviously, we weren’t there yet. We’d just gotten into Kentucky, and we had a way to go, but even after I explained it to them, it was as though they were stuck on replay, and every couple of minutes, they’d take turns asking the dreaded question.

At some point, I stopped answering because they already knew the answer. No, we weren’t there yet, and we wouldn’t be for at least another ten hours. If you already know the answer to the question you’re asking God but don’t want to acknowledge it in the hope that you’ll get a different answer, stop asking or be honest enough to tell Him you don’t like the answer He already gave you. However, instead of courting rebellion, my counsel would be to say, Lord, your will be done, and continue your journey of faith.

It’s disingenuous of us to think that God will change His mind on a given issue just because we make a nuisance of ourselves and keep asking the same thing over and over again. The way is the way, and the journey will last for as long as it must because the whole point of a journey is to reach your destination.

We can choose to be soldiers of the cross or temperamental children. We either put on the whole armor of God and defend the truth of the gospel against enemies from without and within or sit in the dust complaining that our piece of cake wasn’t big enough or that we didn’t get the special job we wanted, and let others fight the battle and reap the corresponding rewards.

No, it is not a sin to ask questions. It borders on sin, however, when having already received an answer, we keep asking the same question because we don’t like the answer we got. Either obey or don’t, but tempting God never ends well.

There are plenty of individuals within the contemporary church who’ve talked themselves into believing that they can do as they will and still be pleasing in the sight of God. In modern-day parlance, they believe they can have their cake and eat it too. Such individuals give certain Scriptures a wide berth because they contradict their fallacious beliefs, pretending as though they don’t exist.

One of the most damning passages regarding this mindset is found in the first chapter of Romans, where Paul warns that there are those among the brethren who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped the creature rather than the Creator.

Last week, I had to go back to the store and exchange a winter jacket I’d bought for my eldest daughter for a larger size. In order to receive the other jacket, I had to be in possession of the jacket I’d already purchased in order to exchange it. Paul isn’t referring to individuals who never knew the truth or were never in possession of it but who willingly exchanged the truth of God for the lie because they preferred the lie over the truth. It fit them better, and that mattered more to them than whether or not it was godly, truthful, or in line with Scripture.

When we are unwilling to allow the word of God to transform us, and when we bristle at the idea of being molded into a vessel of honor because we prefer to have it our way and reject the truth of Scripture due to its being inconvenient or offensive to the flesh, we choose to shrug off the truth and walk away from it to the cold embrace of the lie. You already know God disapproves; why try to stir His anger by asking if He’s willing to make an exception for you? He is not, and if a voice whispers in your ear that He is, it wasn’t His voice!

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.