WHEN GOD KNOWS BEST

When God Knows Best

October 3, 2011

By:  Staci Stallings

There are times in my walk with God that messages come through–several of them–on the same topic.  Sometimes I know what they mean and why He’s sending them.  Sometimes I don’t.  This is one of those messages, so I’m sharing them with you.  Maybe this was meant for one of you rather than for me.

The first time I heard the message was on the radio.  I happen to listen to KLOVE a lot, and every so often they will have preachers on there with short messages.  The first message was about a young man of deep faith who had gone to Afghanistan in defense of our country.  One night he and his brigade were to accomplish a mission by going on foot across a vast stretch of sand.  However, as they were preparing, the wind kicked up, and it got worse and worse.

Knowing the mission was important, the young man prayed long into the night that God would quiet the wind so they could get the mission done.  He prayed and he prayed, but the wind howled through the night and into the morning hours of darkness.  Just after sunlight, when they could no longer do the mission because of the light, the wind finally let up.  The young man was quite upset.  Why had the Lord not answered his plea?

Then they came out of their covering and looked out across the sands where they were to run to make the assault, only to find it strewn with thousands of landmines.  Had the wind not stopped them, they would have been shredded by the mines.  Because of the wind, because of God, they were not.

God knows best.

The second message was similar but two days later, again on KLOVE and by a different preacher.  Now you also have to know before I tell this one, that I don’t listen to KLOVE consistently.  I listen for a little while in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon.  So these two messages came through though they were “random” to me.

In the second story, a man was stranded on a deserted island in the South Pacific.  He scrounged for food and found a coconut tree.  The tree had enough food on it to last a week, so the man ate for a week, thanking God for the provision and praying for more.  On the sixth day, however, the coconut tree caught fire and burned to the ground.  The man was flummoxed.  How could God do this to him?  Now he had no food!

Then a short hour later a boat appeared, and the man was rescued.  But how?  How did the people on the boat even know where to look, the man asked.  “We saw the smoke and thought we should investigate.”

Sometimes God does not handle things the way we would or think He should.  It is in those times that we must remember that God really DOES know best, and He will take us safely through if we learn to trust Him completely–even in those times when we don’t understand.