Why?

In His Name Devotionals
WHY?

“Why is one born in America; another in Papua New Guinea?” “Why is one body intact, rather than severely handicapped?” “Why did I get this job, loss that one, or get passed over for another?” “Why didn’t I get the lean gene?” “Why do we have big noses, arthritis, and cancer?” “Why did the one I loved and needed most die?” Understood only in a trivial sense, we may never know why this or that is happening to us?

Such questions can not be explained with answers like “bad choices” or “just not trying,” because they happen—or at least can happen—without any fault on our part. Asking “Why?” about life usually leads us to the plaintive and sad form of the question, often filling us with pain and lament; anger and disbelief. Willard wrote: “The situations in which we find ourselves are never as important as our responses to them, which comes from our ‘spiritual’ side.”

You have a spiritual side. Your spirit is the real you. It is the inner you that has been formed and shaped by everything experienced in life. A selfish, self-worshiping (sinful) spirit is formed naturally in a world under the dominion of the Prince of Darkness. That spirit typically reacts to less-than-ideal situations with: complaint, “I don’t deserve this!” and accusation, “Somebody needs to pay for what’s happened to me!” A humble and God centered; redeemed and transformed spirit reacts differently.

People of great faith and pure hearts refuse to stand helpless and whimpering before calamity. From the depths of gratitude for grace already received, they pray for courage. In hope of grace yet to be experienced, they acknowledge their insufficiency and surrender to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The stories of Abraham, Job, Joseph, Ruth, Mary, and Paul teach us about spiritually grappling, learning, and growing.

Are you facing a crisis? Are you frozen and helpless, asking “Why?” Or bold in God’s power to push back, struggle, persevere, and triumph? Where do you want to be in Christ?