When God Doesn't Fix It: Lessons You Never Wanted to Learn, Truths You Can't Live Without

by Laura Story

Pharisees refused to believe in h...

Jesus also offered his physical healings as proof to John the Baptist that he was the Messiah (Matt. 11:2–6).

Jesus came to

restore both physically and relationally what had been lost in the fall.

The answer to our whys may be obvious now, or they may never be answered in our lifetime. But even if we knew why, it’s likely we wouldn’t be satisfied with the answers anyway.

too often, we don’t get the answer we want. I don’t think that means we should give up asking questions; we just need to understand their role in our brokenness.

But even when David’s questions weren’t answered,

his faith in God was stronger than his need to know.

Just like David, my why questions allow me to go before my heavenly Father and p...

nowhere does the Bible promise that all our questions will be answered this

side of heaven.

I’ve discovered that the longer I focus on why, the less progress I make.

Man asks why. Jesus asks how. Man asks, “Why did this happen?” Jesus asks, “How might my Father’s glory be displayed through this situation?”

It’s only when we bring our pain to him that we can find our dwelling in him.

My friend Shea is the kind of healthy person who eats only free-range, vegan, grass-fed, organic food. About a year ago, she was diagnosed with cancer.

When she was diagnosed, my first reaction was, Why her?

I can give you two...

One is because sin entered the world, and it lo...

The second is that even though God hates cancer, it can be used ...

Every time my friend goes through one of her chemotherapy treatments, she depends on God’s strength to help her get through.

That is when I see his power to overcome cancer.

A month after she was diagnosed, she came to the hotel where I was staying and sat by the pool.

She told me that her marriage was better than it had been in years—the trials had brought them closer.

I met a woman once who was married for twenty years to an unfaithful husband before they divorced. She spent the next two decades asking why and being bitter toward God. Twenty years after her divorce, she still had no answers—only bitterness. But now, she has lost forty years of her life to the jerk she married.

How would her life have been different after her divorce if she’d moved from why to how?

Don’t lose another day of your life asking unproductive why questions.

When the time is right, move forward by asking how.

MYTH: CONTENTMENT BEGINS WITH UNDERSTANDING WHY.

TRUTH: CONTENTMENT BEGINS WITH ASKING HOW GOD MIGHT USE THIS FOR HIS GLORY.

In Psalms, I read how, despite his deep pain, David continued to praise God—even when he didn’t feel like it.

Even in his trials, David always seemed to authentically praise and worship God.

I came across Psalm 40 where David spilled his secret—David was...

I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and ...

When David stood at his lowest point emotionally, he was still authe...

he wept, prayed, and cried out for God’s help. Despite his pain, David said he waited patiently and God heard his cry. God rescued him from his brokenness and gave him a sure and sturdy place to stand.

But that wasn’t all God did. David said, “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God” (v. 3). He said it was God who put a new song in his mouth.

God

put a new song in David’s mouth and

God’s...

was a hymn of...

Through the Word, David was telling me I didn’t have to manufacture false enthusiasm; I didn’t even have to feel like praisin...

All I had to do was b...

t...

God

lead the church th...

It wasn’t about my mustering up some ...

it was abo...

He was the one who put the praises on my tongue and wo...

David knew this from experience; after mourning the death of his child, he eventually stopped grieving and experienced hope.

David knew his emotions were valid; he didn’t stuff them or ignore them.