When I took algebra in high school, I didn't like it, I didn't really understand it, I didn't see a need for it and it made my head hurt. When I got to college, as a religion major, I didn't like it much better and I still didn't see why I needed to endure it as I was not in the sciences.
A little later on, when I took formal logic, I understood its application, saw a need for it and began to appreciate it as well. What changed about algebra? Nothing - I changed as I began to see and appreciate what was beyond me and seemed unnecessary - even unreasonable for me to endure.
God's ways, how he answers prayer and what he has or allows us to endure, are often like that - beyond us. It is even said sometimes, "Why God would allow such and such is beyond me!" What we mean is that we don't agree, that we would have done things differently and even expected God to respond or act in a way that made more sense to us or had our stamp of approval.
So, why doesn't God act more reasonable? Why does he do or allow things that tend to confound us? The same reason he shared with Isaiah millennia ago: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways....As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isa 55:8-9).
God doesn't reason like us anymore than we reason like a three year-old. Parents often confuse and confound their children with their logic and their choices. Later on, looking back, the child become adult understands why - but rarely in the moment.
We can't always understand God's answers to prayer or his reasons to allow events and circumstances. But we can always trust that God is good, that God is right and that God is able. Jus' Sayn.
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