God Only Wise

Today I was reading Knowing God by J.I. Packer and I was really encouraged by this chapter. Here are some excerpts from it:

In talking about the wisdom of God in the lives of people during Bible times…

"What Abraham needed most of all was to learn the practice of living in God’s presence , seeing all life in relation to Him, and looking to Him, and Him alone, as Commander, Defender and Rewarder. This was the great lesson which God in wisdom concentrated on teaching him. ‘Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield , and they exceeding great reward ’ (Genesis 15:1). ‘I am God Almight; walk before me , and be thou perfect (single-eyed and sincere)’ (Genesis 17:1). […]

For what purpose did God in His wisdom plan that? […] So far as life of God’s people was concerned, Joseph himself gave the answer to our question when he revealed his identity to his distracted brothers. ‘God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God…’ (Genesis 45:7f.). Joseph’s theology was as sound as his charity was deep. Once again, we are confronted with the wisdom of God ordering the events of a human life for a double purpose: the man’s own personal sanctification, and the fulfilling of his appointed ministry and serve in the life of the people of God.

These things are written for our learning: for the same wisdom which ordered the paths which God’s saints trod in Bible times orders the Christian’s life today. We should not, therefore, be too taken aback when unexpected and upsetting and discouraging things happen to us now. What do they mean? Why, simply that God in His wisdom means to make something of us which we have not attained yet, and is dealing with us accordingly. "

The fact that God uses the “same wisdom” now as He did in Bible times is so comforting! It reminds us that God is unchanging. Praise the Lord!

"Perhaps He means to strengthen us in patience, good humour, compassion, humility, or meekness, by giving us some extra practice in exercising these graces under specially difficult conditions. Perhaps He has new lessons in self-denial and self-distrust to teach us. Perhaps He wishes to break us of complacency, or unreality, or undetected forms of pride and conceit. Perhaps His purpose is simple to draw us closer to Himself in conscious communion with Him; for it is often the case, as all the saints know, that fellowship with the Father and the Son is most vivid and sweet, and Christian joy is greatest, when the cross is heaviest. Or perhaps God is preparing us for forms of service of which at present we have no inkling. "

Even though I have not been alive all that long, it has been neat to see how I have already been able to share with other girls about experiences I have gone through in a way that God is able to encourage them! I remember going through those times and wondering what use they had in my life; now I have begun to see part of God’s purpose in them. =] I am thankful that God allows us to see parts of His grander plan so that we can be reminded that He is in control and working all things together for good.

"Paul saw part of the reason for his own afflictions in the fact that God ‘comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God’ (2 Cor. 1:4). Even the Lord Jesus ‘learned…obedience by the things which he suffered’, and so was ‘made perfect’ for His High-Priestly ministry which means that, as on the one hand He is able to uphold us and make us more than conquerors in all our troubles and distresses, so on the other hand we must not be surprised if He calls us to follow in His steps, and to let ourselves be prepared for the service of others by painful experiences which are quite undeserved. ‘He knows the way He taketh,’ even if for a moment we do not. We may be frankly bewildered at things that happen to us, but God knows exactly what He is doing, and what He is after, in His handling of our affairs. Always, and in everything, He is wise: we shall see that hereafter, even where we never saw it here. (Job in heaven knows the full reason why he was afflicted, though he never knew it in this life.) Meanwhile, we ought not to hesitate to trust His wisdom, even when He leaves us in the dark.

But how are we to meet these baffling and trying situations, if we cannot for the moment see God’s purpose in them? First, by taking them as from God, and asking ourselves what reactions to them, and in them, the Gospel of God requires of us; second, by seeking God’s face specifically about them. If we do these two things, we shall never find ourselves wholly in the dark as to God’s purpose in our troubles. We shall always be able to see at least as much purpose in them as Paul was enabled to see in his thorn in the flesh (whatever it was). It came to him, he tells us, as a ‘messenger of Satan’, tempting him to hard thoughts of God. He resisted this temptation, and sought Christ’s face three times, asking that it might be removed. The only answer he had was this, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.’ On reflection, he perceived a reason why he should have been thus afflicted: it was to keep him humble, ‘lest I should be exalted about measure through the abundance of the revelations.’ This thought, and Christ’s word, were enough for him. He looked no further. Here is his final attitude: ‘Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me’ (2 Cor. 12:7-9).

This attitude of Paul is a model for us. Whatever further purpose a Christian’s troubles may or may not have in equipping him for future service, they will always have at least that purpose which Paul’s thorn in the flesh had: they will have been sent us to make and keep us humble, and to give us a new opportunity of showing forth the power of Christ in our mortal lives. And do we ever need to know any more about them than that? Is not this enough of itself to convince us of the wisdom of God in them? Once Paul saw that his trouble was sent him to enable him to glorify Christ, he accepted it as wisely appointed, and rejoiced in it. God give us grace, in all our own troubles, to go and do likewise. "

I love the conclusion that Packer gives to this chapter. If we cannot see any other reason we are going through trials or testings, we can at least be confident that God wants to keep us humble and to keep us totally dependent upon Him. This reason alone should be enough answer for us as to why things happen in our lives that test our faith.