Devotions

Does God care? - Part 1: Are you struggling to understand God?

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts – Isaiah 55:9 (NIV)

Years ago, a couple with their four children were involved in a car accident while on their way to attend a relative’s wedding. The husband and all four children died on the spot. The wife survived. The woman was a genocide survivor who had lost her family during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. I did not know the family closely, but when I read the news, I was so shocked that, like many others who heard the story, I wondered why God did not take her with her family. In disbelief, I asked one of my friends who knew them how something like that happened to someone who has already lost her family. She told me it is complicated to understand, but God loves her, and He knows why she stayed. She added that maybe God judged that she wasn’t ready to face eternity or that she still had things to do. Her answer was that God would allow you to suffer few years here on earth to spare you from eternal hell. This is a spiritual answer, but there are times, in fact most of the time, when the spiritual answer does not make sense at all.

As rational people, we always want to understand things with the mind; we try to find the logic behind what is happening, and when we fail to make sense out of what happens, we question God, and we take offence. If someone tells you that they have never questioned God, they will be lying. Even some of the greatest and spiritual people to ever walk on this planet (if not all) had moments when they said to God why are you not doing anything? Why can’t I feel your presence? Why is this happening this way? Jesus called John the Baptist the greatest among those born of women. But this great prophet had a moment when he questioned whether God knew his plight or not. And if he knew, why was he doing nothing? In Matthew 11: 2- 11, when John the Baptist sent his disciples for help, Jesus did not reply directly, with a yes or no. His response is interesting. It is like he told them to go and tell John that God’s plan is still in motion, nothing has changed, God’s power is still manifest through miracles. So that is all? Nothing about when that power will work on setting John out of prison? No. That is when Jesus said, “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” (Matthew 11:6).  Why? Because it is easy to take offence and stumble when you have a legitimate concern when you think God should be doing something but you have a feeling that he is not doing anything.

Jesus on the cross felt abandoned by God in his most painful hour and asked God why (Matthew 27:46). Do you think Jesus did not know why his father had turned his back on him? He knew very well that God can’t look at evil with favour (Habakkuk1:13). At that time, Jesus carried all the evils of the world. That time God had to turn away, and his flesh (Jesus’) was in despair. The flesh could not understand, and therefore it complained. When Salomon inaugurated God’s temple, he said “...the heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (1Kings 8:27). How can our small mind understand such a God? How can we comprehend his actions when he sees everything from the beginning to the end, and we only see the tip of our nose? The bad, the good, the just, the unjust, the unfair, the fair, the evil, the holy, he sees them all and knows why. To conclude, we don’t understand God; we have faith in God. If you don’t understand him, you are not alone, only remember that he never said “understand me,” rather “have faith in me.” As Isaiah 55:9 states, his thoughts are far away from our thoughts; they will never meet. We would not understand his plans even if he was to explain them to us. Jesus told Peter “you don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will” (John 13:7). While we wait to someday understand, let’s follow him in faith, trusting that whatever happens to us, good or painful, God allowed it in his love for us. The Bible calls it walking by faith. It is easier said than done, but it is the only choice. It means fewer stomachaches, headaches and heartaches.

Posted : May 04, 2026