“And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” [James 1:4]
HAVE YOU EVER FOUND YOURSELF wanting to intervene in the life of your mate, a child, or a friend, when it is actually God who is causing or allowing them to experience hurt? Your natural reaction is to want to spare them. To fix this. To lash out at those who are instigating it.
When Elizabeth, wife of Zechariah the priest, saw him come home from his duties unable to speak, struck dumb for failing to believe the news that these two were about to become first-time parents at their advanced age, Elizabeth had to wonder why this was happening to him.
Surely God could understand why it might take her husband a few minutes to wrap his head around the idea, shocking and surprising as it was—Elizabeth and Zechariah, soon-to-be parents of John, the forerunner of Christ—after having been unable to bear children all these years. Really? Was it fair to expect any other response from him?
Obviously we don’t know exactly what God was seeking to accomplish in Zechariah’s life by choosing this disciplinary measure. But neither can we always understand some of the reasons why He puts our loved ones through certain ordeals—times of being treated unjustly at work, or hammered by a string of financial setbacks, or continually wounded by a person from their past.
Yet sometimes, instead of rushing in to make things better, we must do what Elizabeth apparently did—let God be God. Let Him accomplish what He’s intending to do, even through this unexplainable circumstance. Let Him have His way in the lives of those we love, knowing that He is good, praying and believing that He will get glory in the end.
Is there something happening in the life of a loved one that seems unreasonably harsh or undeserved? Can you pray for God’s will more than God’s rescue? [The Quiet Place]
