For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9
Some years ago I served on a pastoral care team at a large Southern California church, where one of my primary responsibilities was biblical counseling. I never ceased to be amazed at the number of Christians who came into my office to complain of God’s unfaithfulness and unfair treatment in their lives. Financial problems? God’s provision wasn’t sufficient. Wayward children? God hadn’t led them properly. Broken marriage? God had failed to intervene.
I don’t discount the reality or severity of some of the difficulties people encounter, but I do take issue with their faulty logic. I remember thinking that I had walked with God for decades (even then!) and never found Him to be anything but absolutely and perfectly faithful. Yet suddenly I was supposed to believe that He had failed them—that they were right and He was wrong.
People often tell me they consider me a wise and mature person. It’s all I can do to keep a straight face sometimes! But I understand where that assessment originated, and all the credit goes to the One who has patiently loved me and worked in my life all these years. When I became a believer at the age of 26, I understood at that very moment that everything I had ever known or believed was wrong, and I had to relearn all of it—every single bit! And I set to work to do it. Some years later, in the middle of the night, I awoke with these words echoing in my heart: “My Word has forever been established in the heavens; now it is established in your heart.”
I understood that God was telling me that absolute, unshakable faith in His Word had been established in concrete within me. Life’s earthquakes would continue, but nothing could ever shake my faith in Him or His Word. From that point on, if I found myself at odds with something He said, I knew it was because I was wrong and/or I simply wasn’t able to comprehend it.
His ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours; accepting that fact simplifies life. We live in a broken world where problems and trials inundate us with regularity, but understanding that nothing that comes against us changes the truth of God’s character or His Word gives us the firm foundation we need to withstand the shock waves. There is no pain or problem that can destroy us if we stand on the unshakable truth of God’s Word and His unconditional love for us. The next time you or someone you know is tempted to blame God for fiery darts that threaten our faith, remember whose you are—and how far beyond ours are His thoughts and His ways. Then rejoice in that truth; there is great peace in the midst of it.