Exodus 7
I always wrestle with this passage where God said He would harden Pharaoh's heart.
It doesn't seem fair, right?
This is where faith gets really hard. I was speaking to a good friend recently about faith and God's sovereignty. Two of his sister's three children have two different unique and rare disorders that will shorten their lives (one passed away at age 17). He said, "I think about everything my sister has gone through, and I just don't understand why."
It doesn't seem fair. We all know friends or have experienced for ourselves situations that seem unjust. The cards were stacked against them. They couldn't catch a break with two hands. For every positive step they took forward, it seems they get knocked back three steps. I wish I had a simple answer that would make it seem fair to us. Some pithy truth that would make us smile and nod and say, "God knows best."
For those who believe, we do know that God knows best, but for those yet to believe, I'm sure those words ring hollow. Even for believers, we can struggle to wrap our minds around the seeming inconsistency between God's goodness and our circumstances.
For many, this is the struggle that causes them to fall away. They choose to believe what their eyes see rather than what God's Word says. I'm reminded of a favorite song by Jeremy Camp that says, "Even when I don't see, I still believe." I've read the story of his inspiration - the passing of his wife at age 21 from ovarian cancer. In a CBN interview he said, "I remember not wanting to ask God, 'Why,' but I finally did, and God always spoke to me. He said, 'Jeremy, I don’t always want you to know why, because I want you to have a testimony of walking by faith.' And I had written that song previously on our honeymoon, Walk By Faith."
Faith is trusting that God is fair and just and right, even when we see unfairness, injustice, and unrighteousness in our circumstances.
I always wrestle with this passage where God said He would harden Pharaoh's heart.
It doesn't seem fair, right?
This is where faith gets really hard. I was speaking to a good friend recently about faith and God's sovereignty. Two of his sister's three children have two different unique and rare disorders that will shorten their lives (one passed away at age 17). He said, "I think about everything my sister has gone through, and I just don't understand why."
It doesn't seem fair. We all know friends or have experienced for ourselves situations that seem unjust. The cards were stacked against them. They couldn't catch a break with two hands. For every positive step they took forward, it seems they get knocked back three steps. I wish I had a simple answer that would make it seem fair to us. Some pithy truth that would make us smile and nod and say, "God knows best."
For those who believe, we do know that God knows best, but for those yet to believe, I'm sure those words ring hollow. Even for believers, we can struggle to wrap our minds around the seeming inconsistency between God's goodness and our circumstances.
For many, this is the struggle that causes them to fall away. They choose to believe what their eyes see rather than what God's Word says. I'm reminded of a favorite song by Jeremy Camp that says, "Even when I don't see, I still believe." I've read the story of his inspiration - the passing of his wife at age 21 from ovarian cancer. In a CBN interview he said, "I remember not wanting to ask God, 'Why,' but I finally did, and God always spoke to me. He said, 'Jeremy, I don’t always want you to know why, because I want you to have a testimony of walking by faith.' And I had written that song previously on our honeymoon, Walk By Faith."
Faith is trusting that God is fair and just and right, even when we see unfairness, injustice, and unrighteousness in our circumstances.
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