Pause To Ponder God's Word
"God's Ways"

Augustine recorded a dream he had one night. In his dream he is walking along the sea shore enjoying the beauty of God's creation. While walking along he saw a young boy running back and forth between the sea and a particular spot on the beach. As he drew closer to the young lad, Augustine noticed that the boy has a bucket in hand. With each trip to the sea the lad filled the bucket with water. Returning to the spot in the sand he poured the water in a small hole he had dug in the sand. After watching the boy for a time, Augustine asked him, "Son, what are you doing?" The young boy looks up and in matter of fact way replied, "Why, I am putting the sea into this hole."

We easily speak and sing of God's greatness. We readily join with the Psalmist as he proclaims, "Great is our God and greatly to be praised; His greatness no one can fathom!" Yet, no sooner have we proclaimed this than we are angry with God because He isn't working the way we want or expect. We do not deny He is great. We just want Him to work according to ways that we can understand. We want His timing and methods to fit our logic, our reason. We want Him to be God - All Powerful, All Knowing, Omnipresent - but in accordance with human logic and reason. We want to be able to figure out His way and timing. Even more, we want to dictate His way and timing.

Is it any wonder that God tells His people through the Psalmist "Be still and know that I am God?" He clearly reminds us through Isaiah that "my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours and my thoughts than your thoughts." Why do we proclaim Him God, and then frantically attempt to make it all work out according to our plans? If history has taught us anything, it has taught us that humanity's attempts are futile from the start. When we place our faith in God and let Him be God, we discover that He does far more than we could have ask or even imagined and His timing is flawless.

Does the manner and timing God used to get Joseph to Egypt and into a place of leadership so that Israel would have provisions through the drought fit human reason? Does walking around a wall for six days in absolute silence, on the seventh doing it seven times, and on the seventh time shouting praises unto the Lord God sound like good military strategy to you? Does the fact that God used a boy to defeat a giant who single-handedly held the Hebrew nation to a standstill make sense to you? Using human reason and logic, would you pick the twelve men that Jesus picked as leaders? Does God's love for us make sense? Do we sinners find His actions toward us logical?

Our attempt to make God fit into our little box of understanding is as ludicrous as the young lad attempting to put the sea into a little hole in the beach. Beloved, let us "Be still and know He is God." Let us cease our frantic, hectic living and let God be God!

Keep Close To Jesus
Pastor Gerry


A Pause To Ponder God's Word is written and distributed by Gerald Whetstone, Ordained Elder and teacher in the Church of the Nazarene. These devotionals may be transmitted, duplicated, used in part or in entirety without permission for nonprofit purposes only. Responses welcome. To Subscribe Click Here.
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