She said to Elijah,
"What do you have against me,
man of God?
Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"
(I Kings 17:18, NIV).
I spend time with individuals grieving over the death of loved family members and friends. The process of grieving is always difficult and the question repeatedly comes up, "Why now?" Several years ago, one of my best friends died, leaving three children who desperately needed her. I still question the timing. Honestly, I am not sure we are ever ready to have someone we love die or ever really understand the timing. In the end, we have the choice to trust God in His love, without expecting to always understand all the details of living.
Famine and drought created the harsh backdrop of the death of the widow's son. The widow blamed God . . . she blamed Elijah . . . she blamed herself . . . while she struggled to understand why her son had died. There must have been overwhelming doubt, despair, and even devastation from the death of her son. Can't you just hear her say, "Why now? Things were going so well."
The thing is . . . there are why's that never makes sense from our perspective. The why's are exhausting and empty us out. Surrendering the why's to God produces restorative hope. In other words, the experience of faith in God through the presence of Christ replaces emptiness with hope.
Trust God with your why's.
Ask God to help you through the why's of life.
Receive hope through fully trusting God.
May you be blessed this weekend:
May the God of your hope
so fill you with all joy and peace in believing
[through the experience of your faith]
that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound
and be overflowing
(bubbling over)
with hope.
(Romans 15:13, AMP).
Learning with to you to be filled with hope through trusting God with the why's of life,
Shalom,
Kerrie
(All devotions written by Kerrie Palmer ©2008 All Rights Reserved)
