God Works in Mysterious Ways
Friday’s Verse:
From Isaiah 55:8 ESV
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”
We like to throw around that saying, “God works in mysterious ways.” Usually, we default to that quote when life doesn’t make sense. When we pray for something, and it goes unanswered. When a door we wanted to open shuts right in our face. When a suffering drags on longer than we expected. If we’re being honest, from our human perspective, God’s work can seem obscure at best and downright confusing at times.
But the Bible never lets us forget that this should all come as no surprise to us. The Lord has made it crystal clear that His ways and thoughts are higher than ours. (Isaiah 55: 8-9) This doesn’t mean that He is far away from our troubles. It doesn’t mean He has forgotten about us or doesn’t care. It simply means that He is God, and we are not.
Think about the cross for a second. If you were looking at everything going down on Good Friday, it was a failure. Jesus was rejected by those He came to save. He was ridiculed, beaten, and killed. The disciples thought they had lost everything. The world laughed at Christ and called Him weak. But in that moment, while it looked like Jesus was losing, God was reconciling the world to Himself. Death was actually life. Humiliation was actually glory.
Lutherans have a phrase for this called the “theology of the cross.” Often God works hardest where His work is least visible to us. Strength in weakness. Life in death. Glory in suffering. This is not how we would have asked God to do things. But in these mysterious ways, He always does exactly what He says.
He never said those ways would be easy or that we should not be upset. Jesus does not expect us to figure out all of His mysteries. He only asks that we trust who He has revealed Himself to be. God demonstrated on the cross just how far He would go for you and me. He gave His one and only Son. He is not careless with the lives He has entrusted to us.
In times when you can’t see His hand, remember who you know His heart to be. In Jesus, you have already been shown the character of God: gracious, faithful, and for you.
✝️ A Prayer for Today:
Lord God, when Your ways are mysterious to me, give me the faith to trust You. Teach me to remember the cross and what Jesus did there to save me. Keep my eyes fixed on Your promises, when I can’t understand why those promises haven’t been fulfilled yet. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
Apostles’ Creed:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Luther’s Morning Prayer:
I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.
The photo above is licensed through Unsplash+