Our One Fixed Hope!

            I can’t forget words I heard the late black evangelist G. P. Holt declare in a sermon nearly 40 years ago as he preached about the gap between human understanding and God’s ability. He said, "I don’t see how a black cow eats green grass and gives white milk that makes yellow butter. But she does it, and I like it." Amen to all that, Brother Holt! How ridiculous is the notion that a finite human brain should be able to "see how" and fully understand all the ways and doings of an eternal, omniscient, omnipotent God. Centuries before Christ, a psalm attributed to David declared, "Lord, my heart is not haughty, Nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, Nor with things too profound for me" (Psalm 131:1). Why should we be surprised some of God’s ways are beyond complete human understanding? After all, the average adult human brain weighs in at about three pounds. Meanwhile, God is declared to be "mighty in power; His understanding is infinite" (Psalm 147:5b). The prophet Jeremiah told God in a prayer in Jeremiah 32:17, ". . . .There is nothing too difficult for You." and when the angel Gabriel told the virgin Mary she would be pregnant with Jesus, she said, "How can this be, since I do not know a man" (that is, "since I am a virgin?") – and Gabriel answered, "With God nothing will be impossible" (Luke 1:34-37).

Think about another thing we struggle mightily to understand – "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). That verse comes in the middle of teaching about "suffering, groaning, pain, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword" (Romans 8:17-36) – some of which the apostle Paul makes clear we all encounter in life. Question is, where is God when we undergo any of that? Where is the good when we suffer? Our human predicament can be likened to a very nearsighted person inching along a complex mural painted on a long wall. We see enough to know it is a great work of art, but we cannot clearly see the entire thing. We see some of this and some of that, but cannot see how it all fits together. We do not, as it is said, "see the whole picture." But God does! Our challenge is to trust not only that God is good – but that He is good . . . all the time – even when life is not so good. John Greenleaf Whittier said in his poem, "The Eternal Goodness" – "Yet, in the maddening maze of things, And tossed by storms and floods, To one fixed hope my spirit clings; I know that God is good." Are you suffering? Christ did, too. But His cross and empty tomb declare this powerful message: God is good, and all will work out for our good if we keep faith with Him. Cling to that one fixed hope. 

  By: Dan Gulley, Smithville