DAY 39 – WE WILL UNDERSTAND IT BETTER BY AND BY

“Why, God, why?” So many times we ask that question. We cannot always see the plan God has for us. We stumble and crash through life, avoiding some things, falling into others. We watch as lives around us are destroyed. We see plans fall through. One day we are on top of the world, the next we are far below sea level. Each time we ask “why?”

Funny, isn’t it, that when things go well for us we rarely ask why. When things go wrong, we are quick to ask the question. The real understanding of man, though, would lead us to ask God why He blesses us at all.

We could have been born anywhere in the world, to any parents. God put us where He wanted us to be for a reason. Some of us have riches, some poverty. Some live in free societies, others in tightly controlled countries. He places us where He does for reasons that may not be obvious to us. Later, perhaps, we will come to understand the reasoning behind His actions. Sometimes we never will.

In reading through Job, I never find where God ever explained to Job the reasons behind his misfortune. He may know now, from heaven but he didn’t here on earth and that, I think is the point of this hymn. It may not be until we arrive home in heaven that we even begin to see how God weaved the tapestry of our life into that of all the other people on earth. It may not be until much later that we begin to comprehend His plan to bring glory to His name through our circumstances. Let us endure with patience, then, our lot in life and trust in Him to accomplish His purpose with us.

Lord, help me to realize that I do not have to understand, just trust. Help me to see that to develop faith in You, I must come to believe that You are in control and that You do not need to consult me or gain my permission. My life is Yours, do with it what You want.

WE WILL UNDERSTAND IT BETTER BY AND BY

by Charles Tindley

We are tossed and driven on the restless sea of time

Somber skies and howling tempest

Oft succeed a bright sunshine

In that land of perfect day when the mists are rolled away

We will understand it better by and by

We are often destitute of the things that life demands

Want of food and want of shelter

Thirsty hills and barren lands

We are trusting in the Lord and according to God’s word

We will understand it better by and by

Trials dark on every hand and we cannot understand

All the ways that God would lead us

To that blessed promised land

But He guides us with His eye and we’ll follow till we die

For we’ll understand it better by and by

Temptations, hidden snares often take us unawares

And our hearts are made to bleed

For a thoughtless word or deed

And we wonder why the test when we try to do our best

But we’ll understand it better by and by

REFRAIN:

By and by when the morning comes

When the saints of God are gathered home

We’ll tell the story how we’ve overcome

For we’ll understand it better by and by