Disobedient God: Trusting a God Who Goes Off Scriptናሙና

At some point in their childhood everyone has had that one room in their house, or maybe the house of a family member like a grandma, that they haven’t been in.

You can picture it, right?

Maybe it’s the one you were too scared or intimidated to enter, or maybe it was the room that was only for grown folks.

Similarly, we all have tables we weren’t invited to at one time or another. We’ve all felt stuck at the infamous “kid’s table” before, longing to be brought into the fold and into the glory of the “grownup’s table” at family gatherings.

Just as we have had those places and spaces where we’ve been afraid to go or not invited to, we can have a faith that is comfortable with certain theological rooms and not others. Rooms of joy, but not rooms of disappointment; rooms of celebration, but not rooms of grief.

Maybe we have been invited to tables of excitement, but not tables of doubt or struggle. We have been comfortable at the tables of hope and laughter, but not tables of fear or anger.

What tables do you find yourself missing out on? What rooms have you been avoiding because it’s just too scary to face? Are you creating unnecessary hypocrisy in your life to avoid them, acting one way or another because that’s the “right” way, while what you experience in your life feels the opposite of what’s “right?”

It’s easy to explain God when He’s on time, when He shows up in the exact way we prayed and hoped for, or when we understand what He’s doing. That’s not a bad thing! These are beautiful gifts. But if that’s all we ever make room for, if it’s all that we expect or allow in our neat and tidy boxes of faith… it can and will cause challenges in our faith.

What do we do when things don’t go our way?

It’s not a matter of if but when. Confusion, disappointment, and loss will show up in our lives, and let’s admit it - it’s an even more bitter pill to swallow when we see God as the source.

What do we do when we feel like God hasn’t done what we’ve asked over and over again, or maybe hasn’t even acted at all? The hard truth is that, sometimes, God will disappoint us. What do we do when He hasn’t obeyed our plan or stuck to our script for how life “should” go? What do we do with a Disobedient God?

The great tragedy of God’s disobedience is not that He went off script; it’s our response. Because here is the reality: the hope and the joy of life will either be found or lost in our response to God’s disobedience.

This is an invitation to courageously step into the unexplored territory of your life - those rooms and tables of confusion, doubt, and loss.

What would happen today if we took the psalmist at his word when he said that the Lord “guides me along the right paths” and trusted God to guide us, even though it may be into the territory foreign to our faith up until now?

Read Psalm 23 with new, fresh eyes.

What will it look like today for God to be the one to “prepare a table before me,” trusting that whatever it holds is a feast from Him? Even when He forces us to lie down in green pastures, and allows us to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Even among the chaos and hatred of our enemies, God is preparing a table.

Take a look at what you’ve been avoiding and talk to God about it. He is big enough and strong enough to handle your thoughts. Commune with Him today and find rest in what He is preparing for you.

Read more about this by ordering a copy of Disobedient God.