February 2, 2020
GOD KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING
Romans 11:33-36
One of the common responses to life’s trials and tragedies is to want to know why such things happen. The recent death of Kobe Bryant, along with his 13-year old daughter and seven other persons in a helicopter crash is just one example. Huge numbers of people are still struggling to process this tragedy. So many times we simply want to understand why things like this happen, and God just doesn’t reveal the reasons to us. But when life doesn’t seem to make sense, those who know God have to trust that He knows what He’s doing. Corrie Ten Boom, author and Holocaust survivor, wrote, “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.” It’s no different with life. We have to trust God farther than we can “see.” “We walk by faith, and not by sight,” (2 Co 5:7). Our God is awesome! It has been said that, “What truly defines us is what we think of God. At the end of Romans 11, Paul moves from theology to doxology (praise). After completing a lengthy section of doctrinal teaching, including how the death and resurrection of Jesus makes it possible to be righteous before a holy God through faith in Jesus Christ, and how we are to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh, and how God plans to incorporate both the Jews and Gentiles into His kingdom; Paul then paused to consider the greatness of a God who could accomplish all of these things, before completing the last part of his letter. The God that Paul celebrates is a God who knows what He’s doing, even when life is mysterious and doesn’t make sense. And in his doxology, Paul points out some basic truths that give us reasons to praise God:
God’s perspective is complete, but ours is limited (verses 33-34)
God doesn’t owe us anything, but we owe Him everything (verse 35)
The world does not revolve around us it revolves around God (verse 36)