Read
Romans 11:33-12:2

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
 “Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.                                          Verses 11:33-36 (NIV)

Reflect
Have you ever had the occasion to wonder why someone did not take your advice despite all of the evidence that shows you are correct? That is a very frustrating situation and I have seen it happen on numerous occasions.

Paul wrestled with a very personal problem. By God’s grace he had come to know Jesus as his Saviour. As he went about doing his missionary work, many Gentiles came to faith in Jesus as Lord. But many of his own Jewish people rejected Jesus. Paul struggled incredibly with this reality. Were they not God’s special people chosen to share God’s love with the world? Despite his struggle, Paul was so confident of God’s great mercy that he broke into song (Rom.11:33-36).

Paul confesses that we can never fully grasp God’s eternal plan. Our efforts to understand God, define him, or reduce him to our level will ultimately fail. God’s ways are not our ways and he owes us no explanation, he alone is God.

There is something we can do – in fact, two things. First, Paul implies that we should keep praising God because all glory belongs to him forever. Then Paul goes on to say that the only reasonable response to all this is to offer ourselves in complete service to God and to be completely available for his use (Romans 12:1-2).

I admit sometimes this is hard to do, however this is what we are advised to do!

Pray
Lord help us to be strong and hold onto your grace even when we don’t understand. May we be faithful. Amen.