Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled

Read Genesis 12-28 and notice again that this is not the sort of story anyone would have made up.  And, be reminded that though we cannot understand the events of life, we can be confident that God is putting the pieces of the puzzle together for His people.

These are troubling times.  Yesterday, I was called to the hospital for one of our flock who had only hours to live.  This follows a week with a funeral and an open heart surgery, continued battles with cancer, and news that a young man from my community in Iowa, the son of good friends, was in a serious accident with potential damage to his spine.

Never mind Egypt and the economy, Momar and the price of oil.

Yesterday, when I prayed with our friend at the hospital and her family, I quoted John 14:1-6 before I prayed.  “Let not your hearts be troubled.  Ye believe in God.  Believe also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you . . . I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father except by me.”  If you are troubled today, be encouraged to read John 14:1-6 aloud, preferably from the KJV.

But, if you have more time, I would encourage you to start reading Genesis in chapter 12.  Notice how much of Genesis is troubling to our finite minds. Be puzzled by how absolutely incredible the events of Genesis are. Consider:

• Why did God call Abraham in the first place?  It certainly wasn’t because he was from a great family background.  Notice in Joshua 24 that they were idol worshippers.
• Why did God use a man who denied at points that he was married to his wife, or caved into her demands to sleep with her Hagar?
• Why was Jacob blessed even after he tricked his dying father,
• Or, why couldn’t Rebecca have spent a few more days with her family before going to be Isaac’s bride?

Speaking of Egypt, why are there those famines in Genesis in which God’s people have to go down there?  If you read far enough to get to Judah and Tamar, you might ask yourself why we needed to know those sordid details.  Though, we certainly do need to know them!

Read Genesis for yourself and see if you don’t agree.  One thing that stands out from the story of Genesis is that people in the midst of it could never have known how it was all going to fit together.  Neither can we today figure out why God put it together in the way He did.  His thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are his ways, our ways (Isaiah 55:8 ff).

Yet, if we read Genesis from this side of the Cross, there certainly is something we do understand.  God had a plan that through the descendants of Abraham would come the Lord Jesus Christ, and from Him, salvation for all who would believe in Him.

From our human point of view, there is simply no understanding how the circumstances of life fit together, yet we can be sure that fit together they will.  As surely as Sarah gave birth to the son of promise, we can be sure that God works all things together for those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).

Let not your hearts be troubled. . . (John 14:1-6).