Understanding God

"How impossible it is for us to understand His decisions and His methods! For who can know what the Lord is thinking? Who knows enough to be His counselor? And who could ever give Him so much that He would have to pay it back?" (Romans 11:33b-35)

I sometimes wonder why God does the things He does, why He allows us to go through certain situations, why things can't be easier. I was just reading in Romans and can across these verses. We can't know. And that's a good thing. Would I want to serve a God I--as a weak, stupid and limited human--could understand? I need a God who is more than I can imagine. Who has some mystery to Him.

"For everything comes from Him; everything exists by His power and is intended for His glory. To Him be glory evermore. Amen.
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind He will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will really is" (Romans 11:36-12:2, NLT).

The last two verses there are quite familiar to most people (though maybe not from the translation I quoted). But they follow (notice how chapter 12 starts "And so"--or "therefor" in other translations) the thoughts form the end of chapter 11 that we can't understand everything God does. But Paul says that everything God does (including the commands He gives, and the Son whose life we are to imitate) is for His glory. Therefore, we need to think and act and live differently, constantly being transformed into Christ's image. That's what we need to know: not why God does what He does, but how God has called us to live.

It's easy--I'm a witness to it--to copy the behavior and customs of this world. But we are meant for so much more. It's not an easy road, but down it we find the depth of God's love for us.