How To Ask God Why

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Well, I want to invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Habakkuk chapter 1.

Habakkuk 1 · chapter mention

Habakkuk chapter 1, we'll finish this chapter today,

Habakkuk 1 · chapter mention

and we'll get right into chapter 2 and finish that chapter, Lord willing, next Sunday.

But Habakkuk chapter 1 is where we are for now.

Habakkuk 1 · chapter mention

Now, it's not unusual for seasons of understanding to be followed by seasons of doubt and confusion.

Because our lives before Christ are consumed with great darkness,

the light of Christ at the moment of salvation brings an amazing sense of clarity.

More is gained in that one moment, as far as knowledge and understanding is concerned,

than perhaps any other moment leading up to that point in your life,

and maybe even after in your spiritual walk.

But as we progress in our walk with Christ,

we soon realize that not every moment of our life is characterized by great light and understanding.

seasons of hardship, especially, can disorient us,

even to the point of leading us to doubt what at one time was abundantly clear.

We usually look back at these seasons of our lives and at these difficulties,

and we can see that they are God's way of bringing us into a much deeper fellowship with Him.

But in the moment, we don't always sense that spiritual growth is indeed what is happening in that moment.

Many times, all we can do is cry out to God and we simply ask,

Why?

Why is this happening to me?

Why, Lord, are you allowing this to go on?

I just don't understand.

And throughout the course of our lives, we'll have many moments like that.

Our text finds Habakkuk in the midst of one of these confusing seasons.

His initial question was to determine why God wasn't doing anything about the wickedness in Judah.

And God finally answered him and informed the prophet that he had actually been working all along

to raise up the Chaldean army that would serve as his instrument of judgment.

Habakkuk understood the need for judgment.

But he had great difficulty in understanding why God would judge the nation in this way.

What follows this perplexity is a very humble yet honestly transparent prayer to the Lord.

Habakkuk was desperate to understand why God was acting in a way

that seemed to be contradictory to God's holy nature.

And that, in essence, is the question that causes Habakkuk so much issue here in our text.

Now, like Habakkuk, we will inevitably face periods of confusion

that lead us to ask God why he's working in a particular way.

And right here at the beginning, I want you to understand that there is nothing inherently sinful

about asking God for answers.

But there is a right way and a wrong way to approach God with our questions.

Some people might withdraw and pout against God whenever they're going through difficulty.

Others may come to a point of confusion in their Christian life,

and they actually just abandon the faith altogether,

considering that whatever they had believed to be truth up to that point was actually false.

Habakkuk's question was weighty, and it was sincere.

But it's sandwiched in between faith and submission.

And because of that, it serves as a classic example

of how we are to approach God in prayer,

how it is that we are to righteously bring our questions about life and hardship

and misunderstandings to the Lord.

Well, let's read our text.

Habakkuk chapter 1, we pick up in verse number 12,

Habakkuk 1 · chapter mention

and we'll read down through the first verse of chapter 2.

Habakkuk says,

Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One?

We shall not die.

O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment,

and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil,

and cannot look on iniquity.

Why do you then look upon them that deal treacherously

and hold your tongue when the wicked devour the man that is more righteous than he?

You make men as the fish of the sea,

and as the creeping things that have no ruler over them.

They take up all of them with the angle or the hook.

They catch them in their net, then gather them in their drag.

Therefore, they rejoice and are glad.

Therefore, they sacrifice unto their net and burn incense unto their drag,

because by them their portion is fat and their meat plenteous.

Shall they therefore empty their net

and not spare continually to slay the nations?

I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower,

and will watch to see what he will say unto me,

and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

I want to look at three features that are contained in Habakkuk's prayer here,

and then I want to conclude our study today with just a few practical steps

that Martin Lloyd-Jones actually presented in a series of sermons on this book as well.

But let's first examine Habakkuk's prayer.

The first thing that we notice here,

as we understand the right way to approach God with our questions,

is that Habakkuk approached God reverently.

He approached God reverently.

Now, there's no mistaking the spirit with which Habakkuk approached God as he prayed for answers.

Ignoring verse number 12 would make it very easy to misjudge the prophet's question.

It might lead us to conclude that Habakkuk was arrogantly lashing out at God.

But a careful examination of verse number 12 reveals the spirit of reverence that actually permeated his heart.

Truly, if we're going to bring our questions to God in a way that's not sinful,

we must give consideration to the way in which we approach God in prayer.

And Habakkuk's approach included both worship and it included faith.

Let's first look at his worship.

That's what it was foremost, was worshipful.

And as with anyone, the nature of worship reveals the depth of their theology.

It was because of Habakkuk's faithful walk with God and study of the scriptures

that he was able to worship God in this prayer.

Now, I want you to consider with me all the attributes of God

that Habakkuk brings into the equation as he approaches him in prayer.

Look with me first at verse number 12.

We see that he recognized God as the one true God.

The one true God.

Look at the very first phrase.

He prays, art thou not from everlasting?

Now, the Chaldeans would credit their own idols with the great success of their conquest of the world.

But Habakkuk recognized that Yahweh was the only true and living God.

As he faced the uncertainty of why God was working in this particular way,

he reminded himself of one thing that was absolutely certain.

And that is God is the eternal, everlasting God.

He is the one true God.

No matter how it may have seemed,

God had not lost.

The Chaldeans were not greater than him.

Their idols were nothing.

They were nothing but carvings.

There was no life in their idols.

And it's the same truth that we must acknowledge as we come to the Lord with our questions.

That he is the one true and living God that is from everlasting.

He is eternal.

He's not been defeated, nor has he abandoned his purpose.

He's God.

So no matter what the difficulty is that you're facing today,

we can stop and we can acknowledge that we serve the one true and living God

that cannot be defeated.

He has not lost control.

He is God from everlasting to everlasting.

And he has not taken a break as it relates to our lives.

So we see he recognizes the one true God.

Secondly, he sees that God is the self-existent God.

Look at the second phrase.

He says,

Then he says,

We understand Lord there to be the holy covenant name of God.

We pronounce it as Yahweh or Jehovah.

It's the great tetragrammaton that was given to Moses as Moses and God had this dialogue.

And God tells Moses,

I want you to go back to Egypt and I want you to tell Pharaoh to let my people go.

And Moses says,

Who am I supposed to tell the people has sent me?

And God says,

Tell them I am that I am has sent thee.

And it's this name for God.

And what it represents is the self-existent nature of God.

He does not depend on anything else.

He does not depend on anyone else.

He was not a created being.

He is the eternal God, the self-existent one.

He is the I am of the scripture.

Over 5,000 times in the Old Testament alone, this name for God is used.

And it's significant as Habakkuk prays this prayer.

The third attribute that he brings up is God's holiness.

And this one's important as it relates to Habakkuk's question.

Look at the third phrase here.

Art thou not from everlasting?

O Lord my God, my holy one.

My holy one.

Habakkuk understood that God is absolutely righteous.

He does no wrong.

He's perfect in all that he does.

John reminds us in one of his epistles,

God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

Abraham said, shall not the judge of all do what is right?

Over and over and over the scriptures testify

to the perfect righteousness of God and his holiness.

So as Habakkuk brought his question to the Lord,

it was actually a recognition of God's perfection that perplexed him.

How is it that you as the holy God could exalt

or seem to exalt a nation that was so wicked?

And whatever your confusion, whatever your perplexity is today,

you can rest on the fact that God is holy,

that he always does what is right.

Next, we see that God is sovereign.

He says, we shall not die.

O Lord, thou hast ordained them.

He recognized that God was in full control.

He was the one that had raised up the Chaldeans.

And it becomes a part of his worship.

And then finally, he recognizes God as his firm foundation.

Look again at the last phrase.

He says, almighty God.

Now this word actually means rock.

And it represents stability and security

that comes from God for his people.

The psalmist used this title of rock for God all the time in the Psalms.

And it indicates that Habakkuk knew whatever God was doing,

he was doing it for the best for his people.

And we can rest on that.

When we come and we bring our questions to the Lord,

we can work through in worship first

the things that we have learned are true of God in the scriptures.

We can rest on the fact that he is the eternal God,

that he's the self-existent God,

that he is holy and never does anything wrong.

He is always right.

We can rest in the fact that he's in control.

And then we can feel security in the fact

that everything God does,

he does for the good of his own people.

This worship set the tone in the spirit of Habakkuk's question.

Worship has a way of bringing peace to perplexity.

By taking our eyes off the circumstance

and focusing solely on the Lord,

great comfort is introduced to our hearts.

Habakkuk's worship didn't dismiss his question,

but it certainly reveals the spirit with which he prayed.

And when we come to God with our questions,

genuine worship must initiate the prayer.

But his reverent approach didn't just include his worship,

it also included the evidence of Habakkuk's faith.

Now, a great statement of his faith is mentioned in verse number 12.

He says this,

we shall not die.

Well, what does that mean?

God had just told Habakkuk that he is raising up this massive army

that's gonna come in and he's gonna carry the nation away captive.

Great destruction was coming to Judah

and the covenant nation of God.

But considering God's judgment

without regarding his eternal covenant with his people

would have led Habakkuk to think that God was planning

to annihilate the nation completely.

But the law and the prophets

that had at least prophesied up to that point,

like Micah,

had all indicated that God's promise

was to bring a Messiah from the lineage of King David.

And if God were to destroy the entire nation

and completely annihilate them,

that would mean the end of the promise.

But this wasn't total annihilation.

This was just severe correction.

And while this judgment was unlike anything else

that they had ever faced before,

God was not abandoning his promise

and Habakkuk knew that.

As Habakkuk studied the scriptures,

as he reflected on the character of God,

he knew that God had never broken a promise

and he wasn't about to start then.

And just because severe correction was coming

from the hand of God

did not mean that God was abandoning his promise

and annihilating the nation altogether.

He trusted fully that God would not forsake his covenant.

But that didn't mean that he was incapable

of being confused by God's methods.

What it means is that because of his faith,

Habakkuk's confusion would be the servant of his faith

rather than his faith being contingent

on his full understanding.

He didn't need a full understanding to trust God.

And had he not trusted God,

his faith would have become a servant to his confusion

rather than his confusion,

the servant of his faith.

And here Robertson is helpful.

He simply states that it's not a weak faith,

but a perplexed faith that torments Habakkuk.

Now significant to his faith

is its connection to the regular study of the Bible.

And I want you to think about that.

Everything that we've just looked at in verse 12,

Habakkuk was able to know and trust God's promise

because he had immersed himself in the scriptures.

The peace that he found in spite of his confusion

came directly from the testimony of God's word.

Had he not committed himself to God's word

in a time where it was not as readily available

as it is to us,

he had committed himself to it,

he had believed it,

he had trusted it,

and because he had immersed himself in the scriptures,

his faith was strengthened.

And though he had questions about God's method,

he did not have a question about God's character

and God's fulfillment of his promise.

Now if your perplexity as to God's ways has overcome you,

it might be that you've either neglected

to regularly study the Bible,

or you've chosen simply not to believe

the things that you've studied.

Our faith will overcome our questions

only when it's founded on the inerrant,

eternal, unchanging word of God.

Well secondly, quickly,

we see not only did he approach God reverently,

but he asked God,

he brought his question to God

humbly, with humility.

Now I want you to look with me at verse number 13.

Habakkuk says,

This is the summary of Habakkuk's question.

Now his first question in verses two through four

essentially was,

Why aren't you doing anything about this wickedness?

But the essence of this second

and more earnest question

is,

Why are you doing it like this?

Habakkuk had no issue with the fact

that God was judging the sin of the nation.

That's actually what he'd been praying for all along.

And though I think he was primarily looking

for God to send a revival,

he still understood the necessity of judging sin.

What he couldn't understand

was how the holy God

would seemingly exalt a wicked nation

in the process of judging his own people.

In other words,

God's actions to Habakkuk

didn't seem to be consistent with his character.

And he makes his case in verses 14 through 17.

Let's just make a few notes of this,

of what it was that was confusing Habakkuk.

He makes this comparison

between God's holy character

at the beginning of verse 13

and then with the actions

of the army that God was actually using.

Look at verse 14.

We see dehumanization.

He says,

You make men as the fish of the sea,

as the creeping things

that have no ruler over them.

God had created man

and has created man in his own image.

And therefore, he has demanded

that we put a high value on human life,

a different value on human life

than any other type of life in his creation.

That was God's doing

because of making man in his own image.

But in allowing the Chaldeans

to devour the nations in this way,

it was like God had reduced mankind

to the level of the fish of the sea.

It was like God had devalued human life

and he was allowing them to be caught

and devoured without conscience.

And Habakkuk couldn't understand

how God could you put such a high value on life,

such a high value on your own holiness,

and then you would allow this nation to do this.

You would allow us to be like the fish of the sea.

In verse 15, we see cruelty.

He says,

They take up all of them with the hook.

They catch them in their net

and gather them in their drag.

Therefore, they rejoice and are glad.

Now, this army was noted for its brutality.

The description of the Chaldean invasion

in its verse is it's more than figurative.

It's true that their conquest can be pictured

as a successful fisherman

grabbing his fish in his net

and reeling it in and great rejoicing.

But this army was literally known

as we study history

to take hooks

and put them through the lips of their captives

and string them along in a line

as they marched them across the world

back to Babylon.

This was a cruel people,

a brutal army.

And Habakkuk couldn't understand

how God would allow that

after having condemned

that type of behavior so often.

Well, in verse 16, we see idolatry.

Therefore, they sacrifice unto their net

and they burn incense in their drag.

Because of them, their portion is fat

and their meat is plenteous.

Rather than give God the rightful credit

for their success,

they worship themselves in their own strength.

How could God exalt such a pagan people?

And then in verse 17,

we see that they were merciless

and relentless.

Shall they therefore empty their net

and not spare continually

to slay the nations?

God is a God that delights in mercy

as Habakkuk understood it.

How could he then use a nation

that was so merciless

and relentless in what they were doing?

So we see Habakkuk's concern

is not lightweight at all.

It is a legitimate, heavy question,

the likes of which all of us

are bound to face

at some point in our Christian walk.

James Boyce, again,

compared it to God allowing

the wicked atheistic systems

to prevail in more modern times.

He said it would be like crying out to God

about the state of the visible church

in America and hearing

that God is going to destroy it

by a communist invasion.

The church may be in a deplorable state,

we would argue,

but surely it is not as bad as all that,

even if it were.

It would not seem right

that it should be destroyed

by an utterly godless nation.

Now, this prayer of Habakkuk

and this prayer that you and I

have often prayed before

is repeated in the scriptures.

In fact, there's a specific place

that I'd like for you to turn

just quickly.

We're not going to examine the whole thing,

but if you'll go to Psalm 73,

just flip there in your Bibles

to Psalm 73.

Asaph is the writer of the Psalm

and he's dealing with the same dilemma

as Habakkuk in a different time.

Look at verse number three.

Asaph says,

I was envious at the foolish

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

In Asaph's day,

he would look out

and he saw the wicked people of the nation

actually being the ones with great wealth.

They were the ones that prospered

in everything that they did

and he couldn't understand.

Here I am, God.

I've given my life to you.

I'm living my life

to do everything that I can to serve you,

yet I am plagued all day long

and I look out

and these people that are wicked

and they deny you

and they mock at you,

they are the ones

that seem to be prosperous.

And he says,

I was envious at this.

And then he describes them.

He says,

for there are no bands in their death

and their strength is firm.

Bands is just a name for pain.

They had an easy death.

They didn't seem to struggle like others.

They are not in trouble as other men,

neither are they plagued like other men.

Therefore, pride compasseth them about

as a chain.

Violence covereth them as a garment.

Their eyes stand out with fatness.

They have more than heart could wish.

They are corrupt and speak wickedly

concerning oppression.

They speak loftily.

They set their mouth against the heavens

and their tongue walketh through the earth.

Therefore, his people return hither

and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them

and they say,

how does God know?

And is there knowledge in the most high?

Behold, these are the ungodly

who prosper in the world.

They increase in riches.

And Asaph says in verse number two,

I was about ready to give up.

I was ready to give up

because what I saw didn't seem fair

and it led him to begin to question God

and to doubt God's faithfulness

and God's love

and God's promise for his people.

But instead of acting rashly,

instead of just quitting on God in that moment,

we find out that Asaph instead does what Habakkuk does

and he reminds himself of the character of God

and he goes into the sanctuary of God for worship.

And it's in that moment of worship

and that moment of faith

that God brings a resolution to Asaph's problem.

Look with me down at verse 17.

He says,

Until I went into the sanctuary of God,

then understood I their end.

And he says,

Surely thou did set them in slippery places.

Thou casteth them down into destruction.

How are they brought into desolation?

As in a moment,

they are utterly consumed with terror.

As a dream when one awaketh,

so, O Lord,

when thou awakest,

thou shalt despise their image.

Instead of getting angry towards God,

instead of being accusatory towards God,

Asaph went into the sanctuary of God

and he worshiped

and he exemplified his faith

and there God answered him

and brought resolution to his question.

And it's the same resolution

that God will bring to Habakkuk

in his question.

But we'll have to wait till next week

to examine exactly what that is.

For now,

we focus our attention on the humility

with which Habakkuk prayed.

Now, the point of our study today

is to follow Habakkuk's example

in the right way to ask God about these matters.

And it's necessary for us

to rightly interpret his tone.

I suppose that every aspect

of Habakkuk's prayer points to his humility.

But I think it's especially true here

in the question itself.

If understanding first

the reverence with which he approached God in prayer,

we come to see more clearly

the spirit of the question.

Now, listen.

A prideful heart might say to God,

how dare you?

How dare you use a wicked nation

to judge your people?

How dare you, God,

prosper the wicked

and put down the righteous?

How dare you, God,

cause me to lose my job?

How dare you, God,

take away this loved one?

How dare you, God,

allow this to happen to me

or that to happen to me?

A prideful heart

exalts itself against God in that way.

But Habakkuk's humble heart

said in essence,

not how dare you,

it says,

please help me understand.

Please help me understand.

There is honesty and transparency

and passion in Habakkuk's words.

But those things are met

with a genuine desire

to understand God's ways,

not condemn God's ways.

And this humility is absolutely necessary

when we bring our questions to God.

We are not to be lifted up with pride

and say,

how dare you do this

and condemn the work of God.

Rather,

we are to humbly submit

to what God is doing

and genuinely seek understanding

as to why he is doing it

the way that he is.

There's a lot of talk right now

about rights.

And one right that you do not have

is a right to be angry with God.

Why?

Because he's the everlasting God.

He's the self-existent God.

He's the holy God that does no wrong.

He's the sovereign God.

He is our security,

our rock,

and our stability.

We have no right

to question him in that way.

So how are we to pray

about these questions?

We approach God reverently.

We ask God humbly.

Thirdly,

we anticipate God's answer

submissively.

Submissively.

We patiently wait for God's answer

and we submit to that answer.

Look at verse 1 of chapter 2.

Habakkuk says,

I will stand upon my watch

and set me upon the tower.

And you can immediately hear

the kid in Sunday school saying,

this is how we know

that Habakkuk was the smallest man

in the Bible

because he was able

to stand upon his watch.

And I'm just going to trust

right now in faith

that you laughed

a little bit at that

as you watch this video at home.

What's the significance of this?

After Habakkuk had finished

with this question,

he patiently waited

for the Lord's reply.

There's a picture here

of anticipation.

He eagerly awaited

for the Lord to answer him.

And there's a simple lesson in this.

The waiting rooms of life

are often the most difficult,

but they're also the moments

that God uses

to strengthen us

in ways that blessing

and clarity often cannot.

And then he says,

I will watch to see

what he will say unto me

and what I shall answer him

when I am reproved.

Now look at that last phrase again.

This is a little strange, right?

He says,

I will wait to see

how God will answer

and what I shall answer him

when I am reproved.

Now,

taking this entire series of verses

into the equation of our thought

helps us to understand

what he means by this statement.

There was no way for Habakkuk

to prepare an argument

against an answer

that hadn't actually

been delivered to him.

And there's even a sense here

to where he recognized

the audacity of his question

and expected even to be rebuked

and reproved in a way by God.

So his preparation in this verse

indicates for us

and his evidence

that he was actually submitting

to God's answer.

Whatever that answer was going to be,

he had prepared himself

to patiently wait for it

and then he was going to submit

to God,

understanding that God is right

and he would come probably

with a level of reproof.

There was no way for him

to know what God was answering

and even to build

a replying argument.

So it's not that Habakkuk

was here determining

that he was going to dispute

with God indefinitely.

That's not what he was doing.

He knew too much

of God's faithfulness

and holiness

to dispute his character.

He had expressed his confusion

and he would now wait patiently

and submissively

for God's answer.

And we find the ultimate example

of this in Jesus Christ.

As he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane

on the night of his arrest,

what was it that he prayed?

He repeated over and over,

not my will,

but thy will be done.

It's this submission

that is the reason

that we pray in Jesus' name,

that we tack those words on

at the end of many of our prayers.

It's not that there's a magic

in those words

and Jesus didn't mean

to specifically command

that we add those words

to every prayer.

That wasn't the purpose

of him saying

that we are to pray

in his name.

The purpose in saying that

at the end of our prayer

is it's a reminder

and it's a recognition

that everything we pray,

we are praying

and submitting

to the will of God,

to the will of our Savior,

Jesus Christ.

In addition to his faith

and humility,

what makes Habakkuk's spirit

and prayer so significant

is his submission

to whatever answer

God would end up providing.

Now, I want to conclude this way.

Martin Lloyd-Jones in 1953,

I've mentioned this

in our studies already,

had preached through

the book of Habakkuk

and as he approached

this section of verses,

he gave four practical steps

for how we are

to deal with

the perplexities of life

and I just want to

quickly give them to you.

I think they'll be

an encouragement to you.

First, he says,

stop and think.

Stop and think.

Now, my mom always told me

growing up

that my mouth was in drive

but my brain was in neutral

and what she meant by that

is that I have a tendency

to speak without first thinking

and she's right.

But unfortunately,

we're prone to deal

with spiritual issues

in the same way.

We often act on emotion

rather than thinking

through the truth

of a given circumstance.

And Christians would do well

to recover the discipline

of thinking deeply

about God and his word

before acting in an emotional way.

Habakkuk's spirit

would have been vastly different

had he not taken the time

to stop and think things

through first.

So we stop to think.

Secondly,

restate basic principles.

Restate basic principles.

Lloyd-Jones says this,

we must first remind ourselves

of those things

of which we are abundantly certain.

Things which are entirely

beyond doubt.

Write them down

and say to yourself,

in this terrible

and perplexing situation

in which I find myself,

here at least is solid ground.

The moment you return

to basic principles,

you immediately begin

to lose your sense of panic.

It is a great thing

to reassure your soul

with those things

that are beyond dispute.

It's like walking

on an icy sidewalk.

You take your steps carefully

and you keep your eyes

focused on the ground

and you put your steps

on firm ground

rather than the unstable ground.

And James Boyce says,

your problem

is a slippery spot.

But surely,

not all your experience

with God is like that.

Get onto the parts

that are firm.

Habakkuk's basic principles

are seen in his worship

and faith in verse 12.

And we should always interpret

our practical

and theological questions

with the fundamental truths

that have been clearly revealed

revealed in the Bible.

If your perplexity today

has to do

with the loss of a job,

perhaps what you need

to be reminded of

is the certainty

of God's providential care.

And be reminded

of the scriptures

when Jesus said

that God sees

every sparrow that falls.

Are you not more

important than they?

And if God clothes

the lilies of the field

even more beautifully

than he did Solomon

in his most royal garments,

does God not care

to clothe you?

God cares for us.

Find firm ground in that

and trust him.

If your question today

has to do with

the wickedness

that you see around you,

the firm ground

on which you need to stand

is the reality

of God's holiness.

that in his time

and in his way

he will judge

all sin

and you can trust him.

So stop and think.

Remember and restate

basic principles

of which you're certain.

Thirdly,

apply the principles

to the problem.

Once you've written down

the things

which you're certain,

apply them

to your current dilemma.

It was the basic principles

of verse 12

that guided Habakkuk's

understanding

and his response.

And then the fourth step

is this.

If you're still in doubt,

commit the problem

to God in faith.

Commit the problem

to God in faith.

If you're still unsure,

take the problem

to God

and leave it there.

And this is most clearly seen

as Habakkuk

waited submissively

for God's answer.

So when you're perplexity today,

stop and think.

Restate the basic principles.

Apply those principles

to your dilemma.

And if you're still unsure,

commit it to God

and leave it there.

In Corrie Ten Boom's

autobiography

called The Hiding Place,

she recalls a moment

when she was a little girl

riding on the train

back from Amsterdam

with her father.

Now her dad was a

watch and clock repairman.

And he had a pretty heavy

tool bag

that had all of his

things in it

that he needed

for their trip.

And as they were

on their way back

from Amsterdam

to where they lived,

Corrie Ten Boom

remember asking her father

about a question

about marital intimacy.

It was a question

that certainly

she was too young

to understand

and answer for

and certainly

too immature

to grasp everything

that came about

with that kind of question.

But instead of

plainly denying

her an answer,

her dad illustrated

an answer for her

instead.

As they were

getting off the train,

he asked Corrie

if she would

carry his work bag.

Well, she was

much too weak

to do that.

She couldn't even

lift it off the ground

and she recalls

calling out to her dad

and saying,

it's much too heavy.

I cannot carry it.

To which her

father replied,

well, I guess

you'll just have

to let me

carry it for you

until you're

strong enough.

And that's the way

that he illustrated

not giving her

a particular answer

about marital intimacy.

It wasn't time

for her to carry that.

So he needed

to carry it for her

until the right time

would come.

Years later,

as she sat

and endured

the atrocities

of a Nazi

concentration camp

in World War II,

she found herself

crying out to God

asking,

why?

Why are you allowing

such wickedness

to reign?

Why are you allowing

me and my sister

to go through

such devastating

circumstances?

Why are you subjecting

me to see

such violence?

Why are you subjecting

me to see

such death

and cruelty?

And it was in that

moment that she writes

in her book

that God reminded her

of that conversation

with her father.

And she immediately

recognized,

realized,

that even in adulthood,

there are some things

that are too heavy

for her

to carry.

And instead of wrestling

with the impossible task,

she would just have

to let Jesus

carry it for her.

you may be in a situation

today

that you just

don't understand.

You've thought it through.

You've reassured

yourself

with the basic

principles of the Bible.

You've tried

to apply them

to your circumstance,

but you're still

left in doubt.

And I want to

encourage you

in these moments

to trust Jesus

and let him

carry that weight

for you.

he loves you.

And you know

you can trust him.

Now it's time

to leave it with him

and simply submit

to what he's determined

for you to endure.

Thank you for listening

to this sermon

made available

by Lakeside Bible Church.

Feel free to share it

wherever you'd like.

Please do not charge

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in any way

without express

written consent

from Lakeside Bible Church.

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at lakesidebible.church

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by searching

for Lakeside Bible NC.

If you live in the Charlotte

or Lake Norman area,

we'd love for you

to attend one

of our worship services.

We meet every Sunday

morning at 10 a.m.

We'd love to meet you.

We'd love to meet you.