A Closer Walk
"The secret things belong to God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law," Deuteronomy 29:29 NASB. The secret things? There are things our God doesn't want us to know. So sorry to be the one to break this to you. But there are some things that our Lord chooses to keep to Himself. Is that because they are too difficult for us to understand? Perhaps.
“...but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” This is the more difficult part of the verse, actually doing the things that are written for us. A Pastor once said, “There are two kinds of hard sayings of Jesus. First, those sayings we don't understand are hard because we don't understand them and they are not easy to comprehend. Second, those we do understand are even harder, because we then must do them.”
“He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end,” Ecclesiastes 3:11 NASB. Again, some things our God does not want us to know. A gray haired sister in Christ once said, “A coincidence is a miracle where God chooses to remain anonymous”. For many of us, our experience has been that our Lord chooses to work behind the scenes, quietly and unseen. Because of this, we may ask ourselves, “Was that God?” Or, “Did the Lord do that?” This verse from the book of Ecclesiastes tells us with certainty and clarity that it is God's intention that we not know all His work. As a result there may be times when we are unable to see His handiwork, or even his hand.
He has made everything appropriate in its time. In its time. Not our time. Our Heavenly Father has a different time frame than we do; a different schedule if you will. We dislike that, don't we? We may sometimes struggle with the Lord's timing, or time table. Why do the answers to our prayers sometimes come so slowly? When our Everlasting God does choose to move or to work, why does He sometimes give us something different than what we asked for? Why can't our walk with God be more like a cafe? We place our order, and they bring us what we asked for. Simple. Easy. But really, is simple and easy what the Lord God Almighty desires for us, His children? Or does He have a bigger, perhaps even better plan?
Our journey of sanctification begins at the moment of our salvation and continues to the point of our graduation into the Church Triumphant. This journey can be long. It may be difficult. During this time we are offered choices, sometimes daily. Do we go this way, or that? Do we do this thing, or that other thing? Sometimes both choices are good. For example, do we support this missionary, or that missionary? If both are serving God's Kingdom and proclaiming the gospel, would either choice be a bad one? Certain choices may not be good for us, so our Lord will close the doors. That seems to be especially true if we are specifically asking our Lord to close the doors that aren't good for us or for our relationship with Him.
But recognize this, some things our God chooses to keep to himself. And He doesn't always want us to know all His work. But we can draw comfort from these lyrics contained in the gospel song “Trust His Heart”, by Babbie Mason. “God is too wise to be mistaken. God is too good to be unkind. So when you don't understand, When you don't see His plan, When you can't trace His hand, Trust His heart”. Amen. Amen. And Amen.