who knows

“People are to call on God vehemently, and they are to turn, each one from his evil way, and from the violence which is in their hands. Who knows, God may turn and relent, and turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish.”  

Jonah 8b-9

I’ve got some mind-blowing news for you: You’re not God. Neither am I. 

But we try to be sometimes, don’t we? Sure, as followers of Jesus, we may surrender certain parts of our lives to the Lord…but often, we hold tight to situations/struggles/difficulties. We say to ourselves, “I’ve got this under control—I can figure it out.” 

As Dr. Phil would say, “How’s that workin’ for ya?” Take it from a self-confessed control freak and problem-solver, the answer is not so well. I’d get into tug-of-war matches with God over parts of my life—He’d pull gently at first to get my attention, but the more I’d pull back, the harder He’d pull. Not gonna lie, there are a few times I’ve ended up face first in the mud, in a bit of pain. But thankfully, He kept pursuing His Lordship in my life, and I’d finally yield to it. As my walk with the Lord has progressed through the years (along with the intensity of life’s challenges), I’ve become much quicker to recognize Who is in control. And it isn’t me.

At other times, we do relinquish control to God, mostly because there’s no particular action we can take to change the situation or solve the problem we’re battling—we start in that place of helplessness. So, we pray like crazy…and we ask our brothers and sisters in Christ to do the same. After all, Jesus Himself said to keep on knocking (Matthew 7:7-11)! We trust, we believe, we have faith—we know that God is Sovereign over everything. We look back on all the miracles He’s done in our lives, all the answered prayers, and we rest in quiet confidence. For a minute. Then, when things don’t change for the “better” in our preconceived timeline, we frantically assess the situation again and think, “OK, prayer is good, but what else can I be doing? Maybe not enough people are praying. Maybe I don’t have ‘enough faith’—maybe God doesn’t understand how I need this thing to go.”

Friend, God is Sovereign. He created the world and everything in it. He knit you together in your mother’s womb and breathed His Spirit in you. And, yes, we live in a broken and fallen and very dark world. A world with cancer, natural disaster, prodigals, death. But God is not only Sovereign, He WINS. And as believers, we live from that victory, not working for it. Yes, we pray! We must! But in the model prayer that Jesus Himself taught us (Matthew 6:5-15), there’s a key phrase: Thy will be done.

God’s will—not ours—is always the best thing. And it’s always for His glory and our good. Even when it doesn’t feel that way or we can’t comprehend all the “whys” in our tiny brains. Most importantly, we cannot base our trust and faith on circumstances or outcomes—those conditions we place on God: “God, if you heal him, I’ll believe!” Our trust and faith—and our eyes—must stay on the Perfect One. No matter what. Take it from three boys who worshipped the Lord, refusing to bow down to a statue of the king’s image. They could have easily avoided punishment by simply putting their faces on the ground—even if in their heads they were worshipping the One True God. But they didn’t. Even when the king threatened to throw them in a fiery furnace if they didn’t comply, they answered in a way that is a key lesson for us all: “God is able to rescue us. But even if He doesn’t, we’ll still worship Him.” (Daniel 3:8-25).

We even have this example from the evil, torturous, horrendous king of Nineveh—a king and people who did unspeakable things to every enemy nation. When the prophet Jonah told the city to turn to God or they’d be burned up, they believed! But what’s really striking is the faith response given by the king—a response based on Who God is, not the city’s circumstances or outcome: He told the people to repent from their evil ways…then he said, “Who knows, God may not destroy us” (Jonah 3). 

This is faith. God is God, we are not. We trust Him and His will. We obey, we pray. And even if things don’t go as we’d want them, when we want, we still trust, obey, and pray. After all, who knows? Well, God does.

Lord, let me trust You at all times, regardless of what my eyes see and my mind perceives. You are God.