One evening my 5 year old absolutely stunned me.
He approached me in our den, and out of nowhere said: “God promises a
rainbow, so why does God keep giving us rain instead of the promise?” Wow. What did he just ask me? How old is this kid?
Obviously, Andy is familiar with the flood story in Genesis. God tells Noah to build an ark because He is about to send a flood. God spares Noah, his family, and two of every kind of animal. Hope is restored when God makes a covenant with Noah. “Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” The sign? God said, “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant."
What an incredible promise. But my son is right. What's wrong with this loving God? Seems lately we see more floods in our lives than rainbows. Its hard to figure because the Bible has lots of encouraging promises:
“Your God goes with you, He will never leave you nor forsake you.”
“God will meet all your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus.”
“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
These are rainbow type promises aren’t they? God's faithfulness and love painting colors across the sky. So why do our lives have so much rain? Downpours fall so fast that any wood lying around our workshop is far too wet to start building an ark. How can He make these kind of promises while we feel like we're in the 39th day of a flood?
We face the storms - Can’t pay the mortgage...Spouse walked-out on the family...A horrible medical diagnosis...The real life hurricane that breaks our heart and our home. It’s windy and dark with a constant rain. The water gets higher.
I suppose we see rain because nowhere under the rainbow does it say
we'll be without challenges. Nowhere does it say we'll be without struggle. Nowhere does it say we'll be without pain. Scripture does promise we will never be without hope.
We're not hopeless thanks to friendship with God. “God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ” (Romans 3:22). Is there anything more incredible than having friendship with the creator? That gets us through any storm.
When it’s raining, we lose sight of it as we stand in the mess around us. In the midst of our pain, we forget the promise we won’t be completely flooded. Knee-deep water is enough for us to handle at the moment.
Like my little boy, do you see lots of rain but no hint of a rainbow? If you're a Christian, think back to why you pursued God. Perhaps the admission that you needed escape from addiction? Was it the consistent empty feeling in your soul that demanded to know the Savior? Did you witness a miracle that proved the undeniable truth God is real?
I dare say we did not believe because we expected it would bring a life of constant rainbows painted across the sky. I suspect you did not come to believe in His mercy because you thought it would keep you out of the rain. That's not what we're promised. What we do become is waterproof.
The Scriptures above contain the colors of the rainbow, but don’t stop all the rain. Look again...
“Your God goes with you, He will never leave you nor
forsake you.”
The wonderful promise of God’s companionship and
faithfulness. We will never be abandoned no matter the circumstances...God will not leave us stranded. He will be with us in the storm. There is no guarantee of cloudless skies, but there is the compassion of our Heavenly Father. “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3).
But we're just trying to get through another day of heartbreak, how can we understand “God meeting all our needs?”
God looks at need differently than we do. Is our need really a want? Our need is spending eternity with our Heavenly Father. The way we perceive our needs being met and the way God desires to meet our needs are very different. God sees the need being met through Jesus himself. The need is met through a person, Jesus Christ.
“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
We sometimes think, “I love God. Why are things turning out so bad for me?” We ignore certain words in the verse and replace them with words we assume they mean. For instance, don’t we sometimes assume that by “good” the Bible means happiness? We think it really means, “God works for the happiness of those who love him.” It doesn’t say that. Only God knows what is for our good, even if we don’t understand. Fact is, a lot of His ways we will never grasp. He told us: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55).
It comes down to trust. If we can trust him with our eternal life, can’t
we trust him with our daily life? Why trust him with our soul but not our heart? Even if we don’t understand, remember that along with rainbows we hear thunder. We will see lightning. We'll see lots of rain. But there is no need to build an ark. He promised it would never be needed again.
He approached me in our den, and out of nowhere said: “God promises a
rainbow, so why does God keep giving us rain instead of the promise?” Wow. What did he just ask me? How old is this kid?
Obviously, Andy is familiar with the flood story in Genesis. God tells Noah to build an ark because He is about to send a flood. God spares Noah, his family, and two of every kind of animal. Hope is restored when God makes a covenant with Noah. “Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” The sign? God said, “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant."
What an incredible promise. But my son is right. What's wrong with this loving God? Seems lately we see more floods in our lives than rainbows. Its hard to figure because the Bible has lots of encouraging promises:
“Your God goes with you, He will never leave you nor forsake you.”
“God will meet all your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus.”
“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
These are rainbow type promises aren’t they? God's faithfulness and love painting colors across the sky. So why do our lives have so much rain? Downpours fall so fast that any wood lying around our workshop is far too wet to start building an ark. How can He make these kind of promises while we feel like we're in the 39th day of a flood?
We face the storms - Can’t pay the mortgage...Spouse walked-out on the family...A horrible medical diagnosis...The real life hurricane that breaks our heart and our home. It’s windy and dark with a constant rain. The water gets higher.
I suppose we see rain because nowhere under the rainbow does it say
we'll be without challenges. Nowhere does it say we'll be without struggle. Nowhere does it say we'll be without pain. Scripture does promise we will never be without hope.
We're not hopeless thanks to friendship with God. “God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ” (Romans 3:22). Is there anything more incredible than having friendship with the creator? That gets us through any storm.
When it’s raining, we lose sight of it as we stand in the mess around us. In the midst of our pain, we forget the promise we won’t be completely flooded. Knee-deep water is enough for us to handle at the moment.
Like my little boy, do you see lots of rain but no hint of a rainbow? If you're a Christian, think back to why you pursued God. Perhaps the admission that you needed escape from addiction? Was it the consistent empty feeling in your soul that demanded to know the Savior? Did you witness a miracle that proved the undeniable truth God is real?
I dare say we did not believe because we expected it would bring a life of constant rainbows painted across the sky. I suspect you did not come to believe in His mercy because you thought it would keep you out of the rain. That's not what we're promised. What we do become is waterproof.
The Scriptures above contain the colors of the rainbow, but don’t stop all the rain. Look again...
“Your God goes with you, He will never leave you nor
forsake you.”
The wonderful promise of God’s companionship and
faithfulness. We will never be abandoned no matter the circumstances...God will not leave us stranded. He will be with us in the storm. There is no guarantee of cloudless skies, but there is the compassion of our Heavenly Father. “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3).
But we're just trying to get through another day of heartbreak, how can we understand “God meeting all our needs?”
God looks at need differently than we do. Is our need really a want? Our need is spending eternity with our Heavenly Father. The way we perceive our needs being met and the way God desires to meet our needs are very different. God sees the need being met through Jesus himself. The need is met through a person, Jesus Christ.
“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
We sometimes think, “I love God. Why are things turning out so bad for me?” We ignore certain words in the verse and replace them with words we assume they mean. For instance, don’t we sometimes assume that by “good” the Bible means happiness? We think it really means, “God works for the happiness of those who love him.” It doesn’t say that. Only God knows what is for our good, even if we don’t understand. Fact is, a lot of His ways we will never grasp. He told us: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55).
It comes down to trust. If we can trust him with our eternal life, can’t
we trust him with our daily life? Why trust him with our soul but not our heart? Even if we don’t understand, remember that along with rainbows we hear thunder. We will see lightning. We'll see lots of rain. But there is no need to build an ark. He promised it would never be needed again.
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