October 05, 2020

But It Makes No Sense!

 Devotion for the Week...

My father-in-law is a retired pastor. Fifteen or so years ago, there was a woman in his congregation who had cancer so pervasive she said she was "maggoty with it" (not sure if that was her doctor's words or her own interpretation). She felt that she needed a small group of believers to come to her home and take communion with her for 21 days, as a complement to the medical treatments she was receiving, so my in-laws and a few others joined her in that act of faith. I don't know how long after that her cancer was gone, but I do know that she's still alive and healthy today. I've heard her share that testimony quite a few times, always putting emphasis on how much she appreciated those who joined her and the importance she feels those 21 days had.

Taking communion makes no sense as a cancer treatment, right? Those little cups of juice and wafers have no impact on the growth of cancer cells. But obedience to God can have a big impact on whatever difficulty we face.

Take the Israelites marching around the walls of Jericho. On what planet does marching around a city, blowing trumpets and shouting make the city walls fall down? Logically speaking, none! But in Joshua 6, that's exactly what happened. God told Joshua that this was the battle plan, Joshua and the people obeyed and the walls fell down. It makes no sense, but it worked.

There's Naaman, too (see the whole story in 2 Kings 5:1-19). Naaman was the commander of the Aramean army and he had leprosy. An Israelite slave girl in his household recommended he go to the prophet Elisha, so he did and when he got to Elisha's door, "Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy" (v. 10). This made no sense to Namaan whatsoever, and having it delivered by a messenger just added to the insult, "so Naaman turned and went away in a rage" (v. 12). Fortunately for Naaman, some of his officers suggested that since he had been told to do such a simple thing, he might as well give it a try. He did and it worked.

Obedience to God can have a big impact on whatever difficulty we face | DevotedQuilter.com
Background quilt is Intersections

And then there's Jesus. How does it make sense that one person can take on the sins of the entire world and that believing in Him can make us righteous before God? Well, again, logically speaking, it doesn't. But God doesn't always work through human logic, does he? Paul wrote, "The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). 

God's way doesn't always make sense to us, but that doesn't matter. What matters is whether or not we do things His way, even when we don't understand.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you. I needed to hear this today.

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  2. Thanks for your encouraging words. If God always made sense to us then I guess he wouldn't be God.

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  3. Thank you. Very timely message.

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