We rest in who You are

When I first heard "Even If" by Kutless, I was reminded (again) of a question that continues to haunt me.  Some would say, "Why?" but for me it has been how to react when my prayers go unanswered.

I pray for healing, protection, peace, justice...but how do I react when the answer is No.  When the end result is the opposite to my prayer.   "When heartache hits like a hurricane...when the healing doesn't come.  When life falls apart."

Even today as I prayed for friends facing enormous physical battles, I am reminded that God's faithfulness is not dependent on our circumstances.  I must chose to rest in who He is, regardless.  Some days this seems to be the hardest decision in life: to set my eyes on Him and not the circumstances in my face.

"Even If"

I'm often tempted to ask Why.  But as a friend pointed out, I don't think we would be satisfied or would want to know the answer.  C.S. Lewis in A Grief Observed put it this way:

Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily I should think.  All nonsense questions are unanswerable.  How many hours are there in a mile?  Is yellow square or round?  Probably half the questions we ask--half our great theological and metaphysical problems-- are like that.

While this won't stop me from digging deeper in my faith and asking tough questions, it does give me peace knowing that I "set my faith in who [He is]", not in the ever-changing circumstances of this life.


From Jon Micah Sumrall, front man for Kutless, about "Even If":

This song was sent to me by Scott Krippayne, who wrote What Faith Can Do, and it’s a perfect follow up to that song. Throughout the Bible, we see that the Lord is concerned with the end result. He cares about eternity, about souls being saved. The so-called “prosperity gospel” holds on to certain verses but doesn’t realize that most of them don’t have a timeline. After all we’ve seen in ten years of travel, I can’t sit here and say that we always see everything work out...Yes, we have testimonies of miraculous healing, and that’s great, because God does that too, but sometimes the answer to your prayer is No. When the healing doesn’t come, God is still faithful and just, and He still has a plan and a purpose to bring a glorious end. Ultimately, He’s doing something bigger than your life or my life. If I truly believe that God is who He says He is, I have to trust Him. (source)