Why

He did exactly what God told him to do. He obeyed promptly and completely. Things could not have turned out worse. Not for him. Not for those he tried to help. It all blew up in his face. This servant of God asked a question that many of us have asked at times. "Why God?"

I know that feeling. In the summer of 2017 I followed through on what had been a several year adventure. It all started with a dream. A dream about a little west Texas town called Kermit. I had only been there twice. Over the course of the next several years dozens of more dreams followed. A burden for Kermit developed. I wrote about it. Someone from Kermit read what I wrote and invited me to come out to investigate what God might be up to. That meeting was followed up with another meeting with a small group of people in a community center. I did not any of them. All they knew of me is I was a pastor who had several dreams about a revival in Kermit.  That led to me driving six hours one way weekly to hold a Bible study in a bank, all the while praying.The miraculous ways God prodded for me to make those trips is a whole other adventure and story. The Bible study ended and so did my work in Kermit. Or at least I thought. Not to be. Eventually I felt called to pitch a tent and hold a revival meeting there. I prayed about it. I drove back and forth for prayer meetings. I solicited support from local churches not asking any of them for money. We prayed for all the money needed for tent, folding chairs, a location, sound equipment,  hotel lodging for me and the music evangelists. God provided for every single bit of it.

I have rarely felt more humiliated. Under a tent that could seat hundreds we barely had a dozen people for six nights. It was not what I prayed and planned for. I kept asking God why? To this day I don't have the answers.

I don't think God is offended by our why questions. He is big enough to handle them. He is also not obligated to answer them. He doesn't owe us an explanation for what He does and how He does it. It is our job to trust Him and to obey Him even when it doesn't make sense. Even if we are left with a list of why questions.

That is exactly how Moses felt after obeying God and going to Pharaoh and telling him to let the Israelites go. Pharaoh treated the people of Israel more harshly afterwards and even the people Moses wanted to help turned against him. Moses asked God why.

You may find yourself in that same situation today. You can't understand what God is doing. It might appear He has failed and forsaken you. Let me state a hard truth at this point. The ways of God are mysterious. God Himself is mysterious. We can't always understand what He does or doesn't do. Many times we may be left scratching our heads in confusion because of the ways of God.

That does not alter one bit His faithfulness. Nor does it threaten His sovereign rule. He knows what He is doing even if we don't. So buckle up and take this scripture to heart the next time you do not understand and ask God why.

Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV)
8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.