Ezekiel 30

Ezk 30:26
And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they will know that I am the Lord."
(ESV)

Not everything turns out the way we would like it. Pain doesn't always go away. Broken relationships don't usually heal quickly. Cancer often doesn't just disappear. Sometimes God answers those prayers immediately. Often he does not. And that makes us wonder why.

Perhaps the answer, or at least part of the answer, is found in two truths. First, we look at the immediate while God looks at eternity. Is it possible that immediate relief would not be best in the long run? Just listen to Joni Erickson-Tada's life story and you cannot help but understand that God's ways are not our ways.

Second, perhaps our purposes are not God's purposes. Our purpose almost always revolves around the desire for immediate relief from pain. Whether we are talking about the emotional pain of broken relationships, the physical pain of disease, or some other kind of pain, we want relief. God's plans and purposes are higher. Ultimately he wants us in relationship with him. He wants us to "know that I am Lord."  He wants us to be all that he created us to be.

His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His purposes are not our purposes.  Which leaves us with the question: Do we choose immediate relief, or God's eternal purpose? As we are taught in Hebrews 12:11, "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." (ESV)

By His grace,
Rick Weinert