God, What Are You Thinking?

Did you ever ask the question? "God, what on earth are you thinking?"

Life throws events at us that leave us scratching our heads over how and why God allows certain things to happen. These aren't always negative things in general, either. A good thing can be seen as negative, depending on where you're standing.

Consider this. A colleague, your equal, just received a huge promotion. Wonderful news. Not for you. You were hoping for it yourself. Your expectations weren't out of line. Both of you performed well, were respected by management and staff. The promotion could have gone either way. This time, it didn't go your way. Good news for one person became bad news for you.

Your colleague probably thanked God on the drive home. You probably questioned Him. Why him and not me? That's the moment you ask it: God, what on earth were you thinking?

Tragedy brings the same question, only louder. An entire nation can rise up and ask it. Events happen that leave people wondering whether God exists at all, or whether He is indifferent to us. What was He thinking?

The Thoughts of God

God thinks. He has thoughts. His reasoning doesn't work like ours, and He has no need of it. God doesn't need a mind to solve problems. He has none to solve. He knew the answers to our problems before we knew we had any.

Creation is a case in point. Did God plan the order before He spoke it into existence, or did He simply speak and order emerged? Nobody knows. Nobody can. Knowing that would require access to His mind, and Scripture is clear that no one has it.

Romans 11:33-34 puts it plainly: "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?"

Job 11:7-9 adds the same point from a different angle: "Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea."

God's reasoning, if that word even applies, is beyond our reach. Scripture is clear about that. Yet we're not left with nothing. God has communicated, and He has done it through action.

Psalm 139:17-18 gives you a glimpse. The psalmist meditates on God's purposes toward him, marvels at how precious and holy they are, then stands amazed at the sheer number of them. More numerous than grains of sand, the psalmist says.

You would think that somewhere in that magnitude of divine purpose, at least one or two ideas might be accessible. Wouldn't that be fair? Couldn't God bring one or two down to our level?

The answer is yes, and no. Some of what God has in mind for us is knowable. Some of it remains hidden. What's knowable we find not in abstract terms, but in what He has done.

What the Cross Reveals

Start with Romans 5:8: "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

That verse does not describe God's purposes in philosophical terms. His intention toward you gets revealed by His action. What was God planning? Romans 5:8 gives you the answer, and it doesn't come the way you might expect. He didn't look down and warm to your potential. He didn't wait until you cleaned yourself up.

The word "while" carries everything here. Not after you turned over a new leaf, or after you started attending church. Not even after you prayed a particular prayer. Christ died for the ungodly, for people who were, as Paul establishes in Romans 3:10, not righteous. Not one of them. That chapter is not a flattering portrait of the human race. That was our condition when God moved.

His plan ruled out anything in us that would have made us worthy of it. He was not reacting to a decision you made. He was not responding to a prayer. Ephesians 1:4 tells you He chose His people in Christ before the world was created. The cross was the execution of a plan He had about you before you existed. Not a contingency plan. Not a response to failure. The plan.

His reasoning that led to the cross extended mercy to people who had no claim on it. A love that did not depend on the object of that love being worthy of it. Theologians call this electing grace. Paul describes it in nearly identical terms in Romans 9:13, quoting Malachi: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." No prior works. No prior merit. Sovereign choice, full stop.

Now, back to that original question. "God, what on earth are you thinking?"

Romans 5:8 gives you a window. He is planning redemption, for specific people He set His love on before time began, and He acts on that plan in history, through a cross, at exactly the right moment. Paul says it directly in verse 6: "at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."

Nothing about that plan was passive or uncertain. A purpose that produces the death of His own Son is not a passing concern. That is the deepest possible commitment to a specific people, established before the ages, carried out in history, for their sake alone.

Well, that section of Scripture certainly gives us some insight into the thoughts of God towards us, and that much is wonderful to know.

And we know as John 3:16 tells us, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." And in that verse we see once again God's love for us, and His love for us shown through His Son, tells us God thought of our sinful condition and provided a way to restore our relationship with Him. And as wonderful as that is, if you've been in a gospel preaching church for more than a minute you know that.

So, up to this point we know that God thinks about us when we're far from Him, Romans 5:8, and of how we can restore our relationship with Him than sin destroyed.

Truth in the Middle of Pain

How does this knowledge help us when life seems to throw more at us than we can possibly handle. God will never give us more than we can bear, 1 Corinthians 10:13. When we're in the throws of battle, the last thing we need is someone quoting Scripture to us, patting us on the back, and telling us to have a blessed day. During those times of distress God's actions towards us have less an impact on our well being as knowing His thoughts toinwards us.

There is a difference between knowing a truth and feeling met by it. When you are in the middle of real pain, someone walking up and quoting 1 Corinthians 10:13 at you, however sincerely, can feel like being handed a map when what you needed was someone to sit down with you and ask where it hurts. The verse is true. You already know it is true. But truth delivered without compassion can seem more like a dismissal than a comfort.

What we often need in those moments is not more information. We need someone willing to stay long enough to find out how bad it actually is. Job's friends got it right for the first seven days, before they opened their mouths. They sat with him in the ash heap and said nothing, because they could see the grief was deep. It was when they started explaining things that they failed him.

Well-meaning believers sometimes reach for Scripture the way people reach for small talk, to fill a silence that makes them uncomfortable, to offer something, to not feel helpless. And so the person who is drowning ends up having to nod and say thank you to someone who never actually asked how deep the water is.

That is the ache underneath this. Not that the Word is wrong. It never is. But that being quoted at is not the same as being known. And in the hardest moments, what the soul is asking for is not a verse to hold onto. It is a person willing to hold on with you.

After the grief has been witnessed and the silence has been shared, there is still a moment when you have to turn toward something more than comfort. Human presence can hold you, but it cannot tell you what God thinks of you. That is where you have to go to the Word yourself, not because someone handed it to you at the wrong moment, but because you are ready to receive it.

“Thoughts of Peace”

Jeremiah 29:11 is the verse I keep coming back to, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." What strikes me about this verse is the word know. Not "I have considered" or "I intend." God says He knows. The plans are already formed. They are settled. And they are toward you, not away from you.

When life is coming apart, the fear underneath everything is not just that things are hard. It is that maybe God has looked away, or that the pain means something has gone wrong in how He sees you. Jeremiah 29:11 answers that directly. He sees you. He has not changed His mind about you. The plans He holds are for your welfare, and they reach all the way to your future.

Handing this verse to you in a hurry will benefit you far less, then when you find it yourself when you are ready to hear it.

And even that verse, when we meditate upon it will not be enough for us. Sometimes we need more. Yes, we acknowledge everything in the Bible is true, we've based our eternal destiny upon the truth of God's Word. Yet, there is the spiritual world and there is the temporal world, in which we now live. We have a permanent home in heaven and a temporary home here, yet the temporary home can often rob us of the joy of our permanent home.

When Earthly Life Fills the Whole View

There is and old saying, "They are so heavenly minded they're no earthly good." That doesn't seem to be our problem. We allow this earthly existence to dominate our thoughts and emotions. And it all comes down to one thing, 'What on earth is God thinking?"

One verse to share is Isa. 55:8-9. In that verse God tells us that God's thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. What on earth does that mean? If there's anything we don't need in the midst of our trials and tribulations is another mystery of God to think about. Yet, we must. And as we explore this verse a bit more, one thing will come to light, and I've been remiss in not mentioning it earlier. God's sovereignty.