Speaker: Darlene Sala | Series: Encouraging Words | Sometimes God allows painful experiences in our lives, and we simply don’t understand why.  You know that God can heal, yet at times He allows your illness to continue. Perhaps you have a problem that lands you in court, and although you ask for God’s help, you don’t win the lawsuit. You have a financial need, yet you don’t get hired at that new job you applied for. Those are the times when our faith is tested.

Gail MacDonald tells the following story of two little girls, Denise and Maria.

One day Denise fell into a pond while the two were playing, and Maria

managed to grab her long hair and hold Denise’s head above the water until help came. The press picked up the story of Maria’s heroic gesture and came to interview her. How, they asked, had the incident changed her

life? Her answer: “Denise won’t play with me anymore; she says I pulled her hair.” So it seems that sometimes God is pulling our hair when, in fact, he is saving our lives.”[i]

The truth of the matter is that when we’re in the middle of a hard experience, we don’t always have the perspective to understand what God is doing. All the facts of your situation may point to the conclusion that God doesn’t care. But that’s exactly how faith is—trusting when we can’t understand, continuing to believe that He has our best interest at heart.

The Bible says, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33 KJV). No, we cannot always understand what God is doing. But when we get to heaven, we will see that many times God has saved us from danger in ways we could not see.

[i] Gail MacDonald, In His Everlasting Arms (Ventura, CA: Gospel Light, nd), p. 183.