The Bible says: ‘Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding’ (Proverbs 3:5 NIV). That verse can be easy to quote but hard to live by, especially when tragedy and loss happen in our lives and we don’t understand why. But we won’t always understand why things happen. There are times when we pray and God gives us answers, and there are times when we pray and He gives us peace. ‘Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 4:6-7 NLT). When it comes to understanding things – we have our territory and God has His. The Bible says: ‘The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us.’ And our understanding is limited to what He decides to reveal to us. Paul, who wrote half the New Testament by divine revelation, said ‘we know in part’ (1 Corinthians 13:9). We’ll always be limited in our understanding. Sometimes God will reveal the reasons why to us, but we have to wait a bit first. His timing is perfect. ‘And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose’ (Romans 8:28 NKJV). So when we’re tempted to lose hope and become discouraged because things are happening that we don’t understand, we need to remind ourselves that God knows. And He’s working things out for our good and His glory.

What Now?

Next time something happens in your life that you don’t understand, don’t ask God ‘why? Instead, ask Him to help you see the good He’ll bring from it.