I’m in the middle of Beth Moore’s Believing God study with my Wednesday morning girls. If you’ve never done it, you SHOULD, but that’s not the main purpose of my post.

We’ve been working through what happens when we BELIEVE God WILL do something (I mean, we KNOW He’s able) and we take a real stand on our faith, only to experience the faith-crushing realization that He’s not going to come through. Was it something we did, something we didn’t do, was our faith too weak? Why, oh why, Lord? Been there??? Done that??? Of course, you have. We ALL have.

I found it to be a good reminder this week that sometimes there is no explanation. We won’t understand it this side of heaven. There are times that, though we, or those we’re praying for, seem to be walking “upright and blameless” and are completely deserving of the miracles for which we ask, God still says no. And it’s not just us. He told John the Baptist no…John the Baptist, who lived his entire life sacrificially to pave the way for Christ was not saved, but died a martyr’s death. EVEN JESUS, crying to God in the Garden of Gethsemane, asked that the cup be taken from him. But, he too, was told no. If Jesus was told no, who am I to think that I should get everything I ask?

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Daniel 3), were called down before King Nebuchadnezzar because they refused to worship the his idols. They were threatened with being thrown into a blazing furnace if they still refused to comply. They said the following:

If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But EVEN IF HE DOES NOT, we want you to know O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.
Daniel 3:16-18 NIV

They knew and believed, wholeheartedly, that God was able to save them, but their faith and belief in Him had nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not He did. They trusted His decisions for them as the best thing. He was worth serving and worshipping because of who He was alone.

Saved Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego – didn’t save John the Baptist. SAME GOD.
Saved one friend of mine miraculously from cancer – didn’t save another. SAME GOD.
Didn’t save Jesus from being sacrificed for my sin on a cross – DID raise Him from the grave, miraculously, three days later. SAME GOD.

God’s rhyme or reason will never make sense to me, and while His answers may not always be what I want, I’ve learned that I can trust Him to make sense of it for me. He can, after all, see the big picture and I know He has my best interest at heart (Jeremiah 29:11). I’ve found Him to be worth believing just because “He is Who He says He is, and He can do what He says He can do” (Beth Moore), even if He doesn’t do it the way I want.