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When You Don't Understand

Sunday, October 25, 2009, 8:28 a.m. – I woke to this song in my mind:

Bow the Knee / Chris Machen and Mike Harland

There are moments on our journey following the Lord
Where God illumines ev’ry step we take.
There are times when circumstances make perfect sense to us,
As we try to understand each move He makes.
When the path grows dim and our questions have no answers, turn to Him.

Bow the knee;
Trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see.
Bow the knee;
Lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity.
And when you don’t understand the purpose of His plan,
In the presence of the King, bow the knee.

There are days when clouds surround us, and the rain begins to fall,
The cold and lonely winds won’t cease to blow.
And there seems to be no reason for the suffering we feel;
We are tempted to believe God does not know.
When the storms arise, don’t forget we live by faith and not by sight.

Bow the knee, bow the knee, bow the knee.

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jonah 3:

Jonah Goes to Nineveh
1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you."
3 Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city—a visit required three days. 4 On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." 5 The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:
"By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish."

10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

My Understanding: In Jonah 1, God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and to give the people warning that God was going to send a judgment upon them. Jonah didn’t want to obey God, so he ran from God. Then, God sent a storm, Jonah was thrown overboard and he was swallowed by a big fish and he remained inside the fish for three days and three nights. Then, in Jonah 2, Jonah recounted his ordeal and how, when he was going through this time of judgment, he called upon the Lord, the Lord heard his prayer and he was delivered out of the belly of the fish.

Then, in Jonah 3, God came to Jonah a second time and told him to go to Nineveh and to proclaim the message that God gave to him to give the people of Nineveh. This time Jonah obeyed and went. Jonah proclaimed “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” The Ninevites believed God. The people fasted and they urgently called on God, and they turned from their evil ways, i.e. they repented. Then, God had compassion on them and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

In the song, Bow the Knee, we are encouraged to turn to the Lord. We are urged to bow the knee in humility and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ and in our Father God. This is what God is calling us to do. His desire for us is that we live in fellowship with him and that we obey him and that we walk in the light as he is in the light. His purpose in sending judgment is to get us to “bow the knee.” He longs to show us compassion. If only we, as a people of God today, would heed his warnings like the people of Nineveh did. If only we would humble ourselves and urgently call upon God like they did. If only we would believe God like they did, too.

Difficult times are ahead for America. The path is going to grow dim. We are going to have questions with no answers, or the answers will go beyond what we can see in the natural. Many of us are not going to understand the purpose of his plan. There will be days with clouds surrounding us as the rain begins to fall. There will be cold and lonely winds that won’t cease to blow. And, there will seem to be no reasoning for the suffering that we are going through. Many will be tempted to believe that God does not know or he isn’t paying attention or that he doesn’t care. Storms will most certainly rise, the earth will give way, and our hearts will sink.

Yet, God is saying that we are to “bow the knee” no matter what is going on around us, and we are to put our faith and trust in HIM that he knows what He is doing, that he has a divine purpose for it, and that he will accomplish His divine objectives through it all. We must know that in all we are about to suffer that God’s purpose is to bring his children back into a right relationship with Him and for them to worship Him alone as their One and Only God. And, it is to get the Bride ready to meet the Bridegroom when he returns. Jesus is coming soon!

So, when the storms arise, don’t forget we live by faith and not by sight.
Bow the knee, bow the knee, bow the knee.

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