The Way Ministries

Dr. Carlos Quijada: Hello everybody and welcome to the Walking the Way with Dr. Carlos Quijada podcast where we explore different things about life. Who can argue that life is full of challenges, but at the same time, we need to keep on walking, we need to keep on moving forward and here we discuss how can we understand different things that we experience in our daily living and how to make better sense of it.

Truth be told, there are times that things just doesn't make sense. As much as we look around it, as much as we try to analyze it, there are situations in our lives where things just don't seem to add up. Perhaps you that are watching might relate to that. Maybe you're in that situation right now that there are things that you expected to be in a certain way, but it's completely different of what you thought it would be.

In today's discussion, we're going to talk about that: how can we trust God when you just can't make sense of things? When things just don't make sense. When we believe that God would do something or that things will turn out in a certain way, but they don't. If you feel that way or maybe you've been through that and you want to grow more on how to deal with it, well, this episode is for you.

I want to start with this question: have you ever prayed for something, you believed it, you have faith that God would do it, and things just go in a completely different direction? Maybe a door that you were sure God could open, but it didn't, it got closed. Perhaps a situation you thought would work out, it didn't work out. Or maybe you're in a season where right now you're just asking, "God, what on earth are you doing?"

Many times we feel this is not right for me to ask that, but let's be honest—and this is what it's about, having honest conversations. We ask ourselves what in the world is God doing right now? I've been praying for this and I've been doing X, Y, and Z correctly and I should get this result, but it's not what's happening right now. I just don't understand. These kinds of moments can really shake you. It can really affect even your faith and whether you are truly doing the things that you should do.

When you feel that you are and then you don't know what walking righteously looks like. There are situations where, yes, we go through things that are the result of how we've been living or decisions that we've made that weren't the right decision. But there are times that it's like we do all the right things and yet it's like I don't know why things are falling apart, or so it seems that they are.

One example that I've shared in a previous episode is Job. He was a man that even God himself recognized as a righteous man like no other at his time and region, and yet he went through a lot. If you haven't read Job, I recommend you to do it and that when you do, really get some Kleenex and just be with a heart willing to hear some hard stories. But yet there's so many of us that endure difficult times, tragedies, even when we're doing the right thing. Just because we are living with a high standard, it doesn't exempt us from going through situations that are dark and uncertain.

As human beings, we ask ourselves, "Did I miss something? Did I get it wrong? Or if God is good, why is He allowing this?" If we're not careful, this confusion can slowly turn into doubt and doubt can turn into distancing. There are people that walk away from God. Maybe they do it for a season, some do it for a very long time because they leave confused. It's not what God wants, but He gives us that free agency as human beings, the free will to choose.

Those are those moments in which we need to decide, "Okay, am I going to just throw the towel and give up, or am I going to push forward, keep on walking, and just embrace this moment even if I don't understand, but wait in the Lord until I'm able to find answers, if ever?" That's the hard part of it, and I'm going to talk a little more on that. But there's something that we usually don't talk about, and it's that sometimes what's being challenged isn't just our faith in God.

Some might be listening to me right now and be like, "Yes, I'm going through it right now, and I believe in God, I've trusted in God. Isn't it supposed to work out that if I have faith, it should work like magic, like clockwork? I believe and things happen. I call things into existence, they exist. If I tell this mountain get into the ocean, if I have faith like a mustard seed, it will happen." But faith is not magic. Faith is deeper than that. It's about trusting God, it's about obedience.

As we look into those moments in which things just don't make sense to us, it has a lot to do with our expectations of how we thought life was supposed to go. When we have expectations that don't align with God's plans, yes, there's going to be disillusion, there's going to be disappointment because we're trying to accommodate God to our own plans, our own agenda. That's the tricky part where we need to break from that and accommodate ourselves to God's agenda.

That's the tension here between being disillusioned in times that are senseless and being strong and trusting in God even when we don't understand what's going on. In some ways, many of us build this picture in our minds that if I follow God, things will just fall in place. I remember there was this young couple that they were getting ready to marry and they had these wonderful plans. These were individuals that were in the church and doing all the right things and they had this expectation that their marriage was going to be perfect because they believed in God, they trusted in God, so they wouldn't have any issues.

A lot of people come into a new endeavor with that mindset. Yes, God cares for us, He guides us, but that view, that mindset, is not necessarily how things are going to be. Challenges will come even if you're about to get married and you are trusting in God and seeking God, there will be challenges. If you're going to start a business, if God is at the center of your life, there will be challenges. Anything that you're embarking on, there will be difficult times.

I'm not saying that there might be—there will be challenges because it's part of growing, it's part of drawing closer to God. It's through those difficult moments when we truly experience God at a deeper level. It's just part of how our humanity can gradually surrender more and more to the will of God. But yes, when reality doesn't match the picture that we created for ourselves, it just creates this tension in our minds and our souls that can make it really difficult for us to move forward in life.

The reason is because we weren't truly trusting in God. That's an important point here because some people say, "I have faith in God," but we must ask ourselves whether we are trusting our own versions of how He should work. Because it's very easy to say "I trust in God," but is it that you're trusting that He will do what you want Him to do, or do you truly trust in God no matter what He does? That's the real question there.

When we have expectations of what He's going to do that are not what He wants to do, then we are in for a big surprise. It's really going to be a hard realization when we notice that things don't always work out the way we want them to do. That's the place where we as individuals, as couples, as families, need to get to in our walk. Get to a place where we can genuinely, honestly say, "I trust God no matter what He does."

Like these three young Jewish young men in Babylon, known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I just love when they were challenged with being thrown into the fiery furnace for not bowing before the idol that Nebuchadnezzar had created. They said, "King, we don't need to submit to this. We only bow down to the God of Israel." The king got upset. He says, "I'm going to throw you into this hot furnace and there's no escaping for you." He said, "We trust that God is capable." Notice they didn't say that He will do it. They said that He is capable to deliver us from this hot furnace.

But here's the great thing they said afterwards: "But even if He doesn't, know, oh king, that we will not surrender to the statue that you have created." They left room for the possibility that they might just burn alive in there, but even so, they put their trust in God. Every time I read that, it's so encouraging to see individuals who had this level of faith. These were people like you and I who had their struggles. They probably were scared at the moment, but they made the decision to trust in God no matter what.

Time and time again, Scripture reminds us that God's ways are higher than our ways. In Isaiah chapter 55, verses 8 and 9, it says that just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. That may be a reason why many times we don't understand what God is doing. It's just that His ways, His thoughts, are so much higher, are so much greater. He sees not just the bigger picture, He sees the whole picture.

When we compare ourselves with the greatness of God—and maybe you that are watching don't have much faith in God—look the universe around us. More and more scientists agree that there had to be someone who originated all this. It couldn't just happen in itself. Some call it Intelligent Design. When we look at the universe and the small scale of how tiny we are, it's mind-blowing that the Earth is like a little tiny speck in the vastness of the universe.

In that speck, there are billions of us that are living there and you are one of those billion people. When we think of a God who created all this, He's a great God so He can see way beyond what you and I can see and understand. Most importantly, He loves us so much and He has the intention to guide us, to care for us, and provide for everything that we need. When we think of how great God is and how great is His love, why not trust Him, right?

Why not just be like, "It doesn't make sense to me right now, but my vision, my vantage point, my view of the situation is so narrow, it's so small, that I know there are parts that are in my blind side." I can't see them, but I choose to trust in a God who can see every detail of my life. Like Paul says to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5:7, it says "walk by faith and not by sight." We must trust in Him and not in our own understanding, like we read in the book of Proverbs.

Another example that we see is the sample of Joseph. Like I said before, there are different individuals that went through this and they are there as examples for us that God, He can work miracles when we put our trust in Him. Joseph, he was a young man that unjustly was sold into human trafficking by his own brothers and he lived as a slave in Egypt. On top of that, he was unjustly put in prison where he was for a few years. He went through all this stuff and he just kept trusting and trusting in God until the day came for him to be vindicated and he became second in command in the biggest empire of his time, which was Egypt.

He was able to even save his family. It's just a remarkable story of redemption of what God can do when we trust in Him even when we don't understand. What do we do when life doesn't make sense? What are some practical ways that we can live this out as we walk the way with the Lord? First and foremost, be honest with God. In some cultures, we tend to cover up and be like, "We know we don't know, but we pretend that we know." You don't need to pretend before God.

He knows what you're thinking. He knows what you're experiencing. It's important for us to get to that place to start in this healing to just acknowledge, "God, I don't understand this. I don't know what's going on. I had these expectations and I'm sorry if I tried to impose my plans, my agendas over yours, but I've come to a place that I just don't understand." Just be honest with God. God is not going to reject you. He's not going to condemn you. It's okay to not feel okay. It's okay to be like, "Hey, I don't understand, I don't get it," and just have that honest talk with God.

That's what prayer should look like. Sometimes we think of prayer as this speech that we prepare before God. We can't impress God that way. He would be more impressed when we genuinely come with humility before Him, without pretenses, just with an open heart willing to receive from Him. That leads to the next step: release the need for control. Not everything will have an immediate explanation. We need to learn to be okay with not having all the answers all the time.

Sometimes that need for control places in us that need to find answers, to know things, because the more we know, we feel that the more control we'll have on the situation. But we need to learn to get to that point of just letting God be God and release control. It's hard. That's probably the hardest step, but it's real and it's necessary so that we can grow deeper in our relationship with God.

The third step is anchor yourself in what you do know. There are things that you know. You know that God is good when we look around all that He has created, the universe, nature, and the things that He has done in your life. This is information that when you cling onto it, it helps you in your faith and be like, "If God has done this before, He can do it again. He is God and He still in control of the universe. His character doesn't change." You and I change, our circumstances change, but God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The fourth step is keep moving forward. Don't let confusion paralyze you. Just take the next step even if it's a small step. Don't forget that faith involves obedience. So just keep moving forward, keep showing up to God. Sometimes people go to church and they go through one of these confusing seasons and then they just pull away. In those moments, just draw closer to God. Be like, "God, I don't get it, I don't understand, but I am here."

Just show up. You don't have to pretend, you don't have to try to be who you aren't, just be there and let Him guide you through those dark times, those dark moments. You will never regret that. The goal here is not to understand everything. You don't have to. Only thing that you and I need to know for certain is who God is. He'll show you what He wants to show you. He will guide you, like we read in Psalm 23, He will guide us through the valley of the death and He will show you the way.

He will reveal to you the things that He understands you need to know at this given time. What He doesn't reveal now He might reveal later. Some things we just won't know until we are face-to-face with Him when we leave this world and we stand before Him. But God is faithful to show you everything that you need to know for the time that you're walking on this earth. Through this episode, I just want encourage you to keep on walking forward, keep on moving forward with the Lord.

If this has touched your heart, I also would motivate you to share with somebody that might need to hear this message as well. I know it's going to bless a lot of people. God, He is still on the move, He still working in your life. Like that song, Waymaker, even when I don't see it, You're working, God. Even when I don't feel it, You're working. You're always, always working. My prayer is that you can believe that, you can embrace that, even when your feelings and emotions don't align with that.

You might not feel fly right now, but God is real and He's there and He calls His sun to shine over you and giving you air to breathe and your heart beating and all that. He's present with you right now. So don't stop trusting in Him and the plans that He has for your life, which are always great because God is great. Thank you, my friends, for tuning in to this episode of Walking the Way with Dr. Carlos Quijada. This is your brother and your friend, Dr. Carlos Quijada. God bless you and until next time.