You Won't Believe it!

“I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe though it be told you.” Habakkuk 1:5b

I came across this verse and it has been on mind ever since. When I first read it I just laughed because if someone would have told me what I would have to go through to leave an abusive relationship I would have, for one, never believed them and for two, I would have ran away scared to death. When I prayed to God about my marriage I prayed for a miracle. I was praying for a Cinderella miracle or a Fireproof (the move) miracle. I wanted the changed life and happy ending, miracle. Oh I got the changed life alright, but just not quite the way I would have done it.

When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego faced Nebuchadnezzar and told him that even if they had to go into the fiery furnace they would still not bow down to him, did they ever imagine that it would actually happen?

Then there is Lazarus who was so sick that his sisters sent for Jesus because they knew that if he was here that Lazarus would not die. But Jesus did not show up. Lazarus really did die. Lazarus really got buried. Days went by and he was still dead and Jesus was still not there.

As we read the names written in Hebrews chapter 11’s “Hall of Faith,” it can be staggering to read what they went through. God uses their story to give us strength when things in our own life become difficult and God does not act in a way that we would chose. We can still trust him.

Can you imagine the reaction of the three Hebrew children if God would have told them that one day they would be put in a furnace? How do you respond to news like that? How do you prepare yourself for that day? Of course we know the ending. Jesus was there waiting for them in the furnace. But they did not know that.

What about Lazarus? What if God told him that he would be sick, and Jesus would be asked to come but Jesus would not show up and consequently he would die of the sickness? His sisters will be distraught and cry for days over his death.

I do not know about you but God’s thought process makes me wonder about Him. I would not have chosen for the men to end up in the furnace or for Lazarus to die. God knew that he would get more glory if those horrible things happened. I would not have thought that.

God takes our ashes and turns them to beauty (Is. 61:3). He takes the desert and makes a stream. He takes the broken and builds upon it. Our God takes what this world rejected and brings salvation. God is in the miracle working business still today. It just may not come in a manner that we are expecting but that is why God wrote that “all things work together for good to them that love the Lord” (Romans 8:28).

I am glad that God does not tell us what He is up to because it allows us to take things in stride.  He then can prepare us so others can see God through our life. When we realize that it is about God and not about us, the situation takes on a whole new perspective. I will take God’s choice of a miracle over what I had in mind any day.