The Question? No, the Response!

Having determined our destiny ahead of time, he called us to himself and transferred his perfect righteousness to everyone he called. And those who possess his perfect righteousness he co-glorified with his Son!   

Romans 8:30

I recently went through several really tough weeks.  I felt bombarded by disparaging thoughts on multiple planes and from multiple directions.  It felt like an attack. It came mostly from circumstances. But it came also from unwitting comments of family and friends.  I felt like I was drowning. I despaired of life itself. Those encouraging words given to console me rolled right off as easily as they rolled on.  While the hardest part of the struggle seems to have moved away, I still feel somewhat alienated from God. I’m having a hard time trusting His goodness for me.

Then this morning as I was meditating through Romans 8 I stopped when I got to verse 30…”Having determined our destiny ahead of time, he called us to himself.”  (Romans 8:30a TPT)  Immediately I thought “Why?”  I closed my eyes and waited for a response.  It did not take long.

“You’re asking the wrong question,” came the reply.  Suddenly I felt myself floating upwards. I swirled, watching the ground becoming less and less distinct.  I saw myself gliding into space and saw a large blue orb take form beneath me. Earth. I knew as I floated through space, that orb shrinking beneath me that the question of “Why did God choose me?” had very little to do with the reality that He had chosen me.  And His choice of me is a grand and glorious gift! “Why?” is the wrong question. “How do I respond?” is the right question.  

God showed me in spectacular fashion, His choice of me is not insignificant.  His creation is vast, limitless from my perspective. I had nothing to do with God’s creation of it just as I had nothing to do with His choice to show me mercy in it.

Perhaps you don’t relate to the question “Why did God choose me?”  Perhaps one of these resonates: “Why would God put me through this suffering?  Or give me parents that beat me? Why would God let bullies say or do mean things to me?  Why would God let my spouse/child/parent/friend/etc die? Why would He let me suffer from cancer?  Or Lyme’s disease? Or diabetes? Or… Maybe your life is great and none of these hits a nerve with you.  Perhaps you might ask: Why is life so good? Why has God given me such great friends? Or such a great church?  Or such an amazing spouse? All of these questions miss the main point.

The apostle Paul, instructing the Romans about this very topic, tells his listeners that God is like a potter, an image with which they would have been very familiar.  The Potter makes pots according to His purpose. The fragile clay pots have nothing to do with their destiny. They owe everything to the Potter. Paul asks these rhetorical questions:

Doesn’t the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay an elegant vase or an ordinary pot?

And in the same way, although God has every right to unleash his anger and demonstrate his power, yet he is extremely patient with those who deserve wrath—vessels prepared for destruction. And doesn’t he also have the right to release the revelation of the wealth of his glory to his vessels of mercy, whom God prepared beforehand to receive his glory?   Romans 9:21b-23

Yes, it is God alone who gets to determine my destiny.  It is He who gets to choose me for His own good purposes.  My place isn’t to ask why just as it’s not the place of the pot to demand an explanation from the Potter.  The reality is that God gets to choose to be gracious and merciful. I can’t demand those gifts. But He chooses to give them.  The only choice I have is in how I respond. Paul quotes Hosea: 

To those who were rejected and not my people,

    I will say to them: ‘You are mine.’

And to those who were unloved I will say:

    ‘You are my darling.’  Romans 9:25  

What he doesn’t give us is the response found in Hosea 2:23:

I will plant her for myself in the land;

    I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’

I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’;

    and they will say, ‘You are my God.’  Hosea 2:23 (emphasis mine)

How do I respond?  I respond by declaring that it is Papa God through Christ Jesus who is my God.  He alone deserves that place of honor. It is to Him that I surrender my will and my way.  It is to Him that I surrender the right to have my questions answered. If He chooses to show me why, He will.  Otherwise, I have to keep trusting that He has my destiny determined for His glory...no matter what I feel like at the moment!