New Morning Mercies for Teens: A 10-Day Gospel Devotional预览

The best theology will not remove mystery from your life, so rest is found in trusting the One who rules, is all, and knows no mystery.

In 2006, a drunk and unlicensed driver swerved up on the sidewalk and crushed our daughter Nicole against a wall. She had devastating injuries. The injury shattered her pelvis and triggered massive internal bleeding. I rushed to the hospital. When I entered Nicole’s intensive-care room, I wasn’t sure if she could hear me. I crawled up on Nicole’s bed and whispered, “It’s Dad, you’re not alone. God is with you, too.”

That day, I felt like the whole world went dark. My heart cried, “Why, why, why?”

If I could choose, I wouldn’t have any of my children go through such a thing. And if I had had to choose one of my children, I wouldn’t have chosen Nicole at that moment in her life. She seemed so vulnerable. But in an instant, we had been cast into a life-changing mystery. And all our belief in God didn’t take that mystery away. Nicole did recover well, but we lived through four years of hardship.

During that time, here was my comfort: when it came to Nicole’s accident, God was neither surprised nor afraid. You see, there is no mystery with God. He is never caught off guard. I love the words of Daniel 2:22: “He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with him.”

God is with you in your moments of darkness because he will never leave you. But your darkness isn’t dark to him. He understands all the things that confuse you the most. Your mysteries aren’t mysterious to him. More than that, he is in complete charge of all that is mysterious to you and me.

Remember this: what you see as dark, God sees as light. He holds both you and your mysteries in his gracious hands. And that means you can find rest even when the darkness of mystery has entered your life.

“Can you find out the deep things of God?

Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?

It is higher than heaven—what can you do?

Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

Its measure is longer than the Earth

and broader than the sea. (Job 11:7–9)

Reflect: What confuses you about life right now? Ask God to give you his light about that area. And ask him for strength to trust him in the dark, while you wait for his light.”