How To Ask God Why

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[0:40] Well, I want to invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Habakkuk chapter 1. Habakkuk chapter 1, we'll finish this chapter today, and we'll get right into chapter 2 and finish that chapter, Lord willing, next Sunday.

[0:52] But Habakkuk chapter 1 is where we are for now. Now, it's not unusual for seasons of understanding to be followed by seasons of doubt and confusion.

[1:06] 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.

[1:17] 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.

[1:32] 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.

[1:43] seasons of hardship, especially, can disorient us, even to the point of leading us to doubt what at one time was abundantly clear.

[1:56] 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.

[2:07] 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?

[2:22] 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.

[2:35] 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.

[2:51] 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.

[3:05] 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.

[3:23] Habakkuk was desperate to understand why God was acting in a way that seemed to be contradictory to God's holy nature.

[3:34] 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.

[3:50] And right here at the beginning, I want you to understand that there is nothing inherently sinful about asking God for answers.

[4:02] 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.

[4:16] 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.

[4:30] Habakkuk's question was weighty, and it was sincere. But it's sandwiched in between faith and submission.

[4:41] 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.

[4:59] Well, let's read our text. Habakkuk chapter 1, we pick up in verse number 12, 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?

[5:15] 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.

[5:31] 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.

[5:47] 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.

[6:07] 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.

[6:25] 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.

[6:44] 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.

[6:57] 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.

[7:14] 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.

[7:29] 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.

[7:46] 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.

[7:59] 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.

[8:10] 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.

[8:26] 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.

[8:41] 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.

[9:00] 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.

[9:15] The Chaldeans were not greater than him. Their idols were nothing. They were nothing but carvings. There was no life in their idols.

[9:26] 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.

[9:37] 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.

[9:54] 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.

[10:06] 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.

[10:22] We pronounce it as Yahweh or Jehovah. It's the great tetragrammaton that was given to Moses as Moses and God had this dialogue.

[10:33] 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?

[10:44] 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.

[10:56] 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.

[11:09] 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.

[11:21] 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.

[11:33] My holy one. Habakkuk understood that God is absolutely righteous. He does no wrong.

[11:44] 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.

[11:54] 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.

[12:09] 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?

[12:23] 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.

[12:35] 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.

[12:50] 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.

[13:01] He says, almighty God. Now this word actually means rock. And it represents stability and security that comes from God for his people.

[13:15] 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.

[13:30] 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.

[13:42] 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.

[13:54] 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.

[14:07] 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.

[14:26] 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.

[14:40] 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.

[14:52] 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.

[15:07] 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.

[15:29] 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.

[15:44] 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.

[15:57] 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.

[16:16] 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.

[16:26] 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.

[16:50] 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.

[17:03] 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.

[17:21] 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.

[17:33] The peace that he found in spite of his confusion came directly from the testimony of God's word.

[17:45] 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.

[18:02] 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.

[18:25] Our faith will overcome our questions only when it's founded on the inerrant, eternal, unchanging word of God.

[18:38] 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.

[18:53] Habakkuk says, This is the summary of Habakkuk's question.

[19:16] Now his first question in verses two through four essentially was, Why aren't you doing anything about this wickedness?

[19:27] 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.

[19:40] 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.

[19:54] What he couldn't understand was how the holy God would seemingly exalt a wicked nation in the process of judging his own people.

[20:06] 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.

[20:18] 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.

[20:32] 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.

[20:44] 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.

[20:59] 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.

[21:15] 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.

[21:35] 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.

[21:46] 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.

[21:56] 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.

[22:13] 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.

[22:28] 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.

[22:42] 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.

[22:56] 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?

[23:08] 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?

[23:23] 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?

[23:34] 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.

[23:51] 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.

[24:10] 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.

[24:26] 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.

[24:37] 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.

[24:52] 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.

[25:09] 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.

[25:30] 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.

[25:41] 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.

[25:52] 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.

[26:03] 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?

[26:17] 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.

[26:32] 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.

[26:45] 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.

[27:01] 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.

[27:18] 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.

[27:30] 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.

[27:53] 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.

[28:11] 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.

[28:24] 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.

[28:44] Now, listen. A prideful heart might say to God, how dare you? How dare you use a wicked nation to judge your people?

[28:56] 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?

[29:08] 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.

[29:26] 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.

[29:44] 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.

[29:57] 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.

[30:10] And one right that you do not have is a right to be angry with God. Why? Because he's the everlasting God.

[30:23] 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.

[30:34] 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.

[30:47] 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.

[31:03] 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.

[31:14] 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.

[31:31] 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.

[31:55] 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.

[32:06] 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.

[32:26] 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.

[32:50] 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.

[33:16] 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.

[33:28] 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.

[33:42] 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?

[33:53] 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.

[34:11] 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.

[34:23] 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.

[34:37] 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.

[34:51] 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.

[35:11] 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.

[35:31] 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.

[35:44] And Christians would do well to recover the discipline of thinking deeply about God and his word before acting in an emotional way.

[35:57] 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.

[36:10] 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.

[36:23] 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.

[36:38] 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.

[36:59] 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.

[37:13] 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.

[37:30] 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.

[37:43] 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?

[38:02] 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.

[38:17] 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.

[38:31] 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.

[38:46] 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.

[38:58] 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.

[39:12] 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.

[39:27] 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.

[39:39] 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.

[40:00] 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.

[40:11] 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.

[40:26] 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.

[40:45] 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.

[40:57] 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?

[41:13] 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?

[41:27] 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.

[41:39] And she immediately recognized, realized, that even in adulthood, there are some things that are too heavy for her to carry.

[41:51] 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.

[42:06] 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.

[42:17] And I want to encourage you in these moments to trust Jesus and let him carry that weight for you. he loves you.

[42:29] 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.

[42:39] 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 for it or alter it in any way without express written consent from Lakeside Bible Church.

[42:52] Don't forget to visit us online at lakesidebible.church or find us on Facebook and Instagram 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.

[43:06] We meet every Sunday morning at 10 a.m. We'd love to meet you. We'd love to meet you.