Why Are God's Actions So Mysterious?

God doesn't always act like we think He should. He doesn't always stop tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes or tsunamis. In fact, we really don't have much of a record that He stops them at all. But, then again, we aren't really that observant when it comes to the things that didn't happen.

People are persecuted for their faith, strong believers are still dying from cancer and godly people bankrupt no matter what your preacher has told you. We are told to have faith . . . but faith in what? Faith that the disaster we fear is going to be exactly as we feared? Faith that God will sit still while we suffer? Faith that we are all alone in this matter? No! We are to have faith in God!

So, we say our prayers, give our tithes, read our Bibles and cross our fingers so that tomorrow will be better. All of these actions fail to have a money-back guarantee.

Why does God have to be so mysterious when He could just make me win the lottery? He could have made me better looking, made me taller, made me with a charismatic personality. He could have made my life smooth with no bumps in the road.

Let's admit it: We really don't fully grasp God. (Somebody call Guinness! This has to be the greatest understatement ever made.) We look only at the moment and cannot see the whole. We only look at one attribute of God without realizing that He is perfectly balanced in His attributes.

God's omnipotence is balanced with His omniscience. He doesn't always use His power because He knows what the full consequences are. His omniscience is balanced by His love. He does not coldly make decisions. His decisions include His love. His love is balanced with His justice. Love and justice are balanced or there will be neither. He will not let the guilty go unpunished. His justice is balanced by His mercy. He provides a way out for those who repent. His mercy is balanced by His holiness. He cannot and will not allow Himself to be made unholy. His mercy cannot extend to the acceptance of people who will not accept Jesus. His holiness is balanced by His omnipresence. He is taking care of the whole universe at a time. His mercy toward one person cannot make Him lose any of His other attributes toward another.

There are other attributes of God and they are all in balance with one another. It isn't that we merely don't have big enough brains to fully understand the ways of God; its that we are finite and He is infinite which is the real problem. We cannot imagine knowing all things at the same time no more than we can understand having our only Son die for people who didn't care about Him at all. We look at what we have called God's failure to act (like we think He should) and say it isn't fair without ever knowing the meaning of what fair really is.

So, we pray that we will accept His will. In fact, that is what our prayers become. We ask God to act in a specific way but we acknowledge that He is God and He will act like God and we may only have a glimpse of Him. If we had all the attributes of God, we would understand all that God does, however we would not need God if we had all of His attributes because we would actually be God.

So, God must remain mysterious in our eyes. His ways are far beyond us.

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV) ⁸ "For my thoughts are not
         your thoughts,
neither are your ways my
         ways,"
              declares the LORD.
⁹ "As the heavens are higher
        than the earth,
so are my ways higher than
        your ways
and my thoughts than your 
        thoughts.