Dear Lord, What’s Going on Here?

Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

Have you ever heard anyone say, God, what is going on here? Have you ever said those words when going through a difficult or challenging time of adversity? Over the years, I have tried to share insight into this question because it is a question that will continue to be asked until we are one day with the Lord.

Satan, who is a very real force in the earth, loves this question. I would imagine that if any one statement gave him extreme pleasure, it would be this statement. Why is that? Because it is usually asked when someone is feeling isolated and beaten up or persecuted by circumstances and forces unknown to them. Satan loves it because he knows that most people will somehow blame God which is the very result he would hope for.

First of all, understand that every human being was created with an inward desire to know and understand God. Consequently, every human being goes on many soul searches in their lifetime. People abandon faith in God when they wrongly understand God’s nature and character and wrongly attribute the negative things happening in their life as God’s fault. Although our human intellect is a wonderful God-given gift to help us observe and comprehend all that God has created, it has great limitations in its ability to see or understand spiritual truths.

God gives us a capacity to understand things that are beyond the human intellect, but that can only happen when there is a joining of our human spirit with the Holy Spirit of God. That happens when one surrenders their life to Jesus Christ and personally receives Him as their Lord and Savior. At the moment of that commitment to God, He gives us His Holy Spirit to live and abide with us. From that point on, the Holy Spirit is the teacher of our human spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that begins to open the eyes of our heart and bring understanding to the scriptures. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us begin to see life through God’s eyes. John 16:13 says, “…the Holy Spirit …will guide you into all truth.” It is through our spirit that we have the ability and capacity to comprehend and grasp the revealed truths of God that the human intellect cannot. Let’s look to God’s Word to see this truth.

1 Corinthians 2:11-14 NIV “… no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Holy Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by His Holy Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the help of God’s Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

When people try to figure out God through human intellect and reasoning, they in a sense, create their own god. I say that because they shape Him in their minds to what they think He should be, and create God to their liking. Your human intellect is not capable of doing so. Consequently, you will either wrongly decide that there is no God, or you will ultimately create a version of God to your own liking—something that has happened worldwide throughout history and that Jesus Himself warned us would happen. Only God Himself has the right to tell us who He is and what His desire for us and this life is!

The devil, not God, loves the confusion that comes from people creating their own version of God and how He operates. Satan is the author of confusion. 1 Corinthians 14:33 says, “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace…” Keeping people confused about God through lies and deceit is Satan’s greatest triumph—although quite temporary!

Satan’s power is in his ability to get people to believe a lie. Jesus revealed this in John 8:44 saying, “… for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” He lied to Adam and Eve to steal what God had for them in the Garden. He has been deceiving man ever since. His first goal through deception is misleading people about who God is. Satan works to deceive people into believing that he does not exist—that he is only a fictional caricature of Halloween and horror movies. He then deceives people into thinking that the evil that has attacked their life has come upon them by the hand of God (because they deserve it or to teach them something. Wrong!)

Too many people who are experiencing hardship, never really discover that there is an enemy of their soul that works to destroy their life. They think every evil, hurt, and mishap happens at the hand of God. Thus, when bad things happen to people, they ask the question, God, what is going on here? Why are you doing this to me? As though it were God’s doing. Satan loves that. He works evil and God gets the blame!
So, today, correct that thinking! God is not your problem. Run to Him, not from Him. Receive Jesus as your Savior. Ask God to reveal His love and help to you through His Holy Spirit and the scriptures. And then pray in faith asking God to help you believing that God is good and wants to help you!

Jesus died so we could become children of God! God loves His children. See it in the scriptures and put faith in it. Let verses like Psalm 37:39-40 become the anchor of your prayer of faith. “The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD; He is their stronghold in time of trouble. The LORD helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge (have faith and believe in) Him.”

Jesus is your hope, your help and your answer—not your problem. Cry out to Him in faith believing that He loves and will help you! Cling to that! Don’t let go. Thank Him that He is the answer until you see His hand deliver you!

Psalm 34:6-7 (NLT) “I cried out to the Lord in my suffering, and He heard me. He set me free from all my fears. For the angel of the Lord guards all who fear Him, and He rescues them.”

In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt

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One thought on “Dear Lord, What’s Going on Here?”

roybretton

February 5, 2023 at 1:10 am

Thank you for another powerful devotional, Pastor Tim.

I believe that too many Christians focus on the wrong things and what the devil can do rather than look to the healer and the giver of life! I’m thankful that Jesus came to set the captives free and that there is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain!

I really like what you mentioned in John 16:13, “the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth” to the unbeliever; it sounds too good to be true! But for the believer, it’s something that Jesus left for us to take our God-given authority and to walk in freedom.

Have a wonderful day.

Roy

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