I don’t know about you, but I always like to understand why I need to do something. Whenever my bosses have told me to do things and I don’t see their reasoning behind it, I ask to understand what they want. It’s a very natural thing to want to understand the purpose for doing something we’re told to do. If you tell any child to do something, they usually reply with the classic, “Why?”
I tend to dig into the reasoning behind a command because it helps me understand what is trying to be accomplished. If I can see the bigger picture, I can make decisions I might have to make without going back to my boss and asking them what they want me to do now. Sometimes, my bosses couldn’t or wouldn’t explain their goals, and that frustrated me because I couldn’t understand where I fit into the company’s goals.
Sometimes this is the case with our service to God and the things He affects in our lives. We want to understand the why of it. We don’t understand how this is going to “work for good” in our lives when it hurts occasionally. The Holy Spirit has revealed to us in the New Testament a lot of the “why” and a good portion of the “how it works” when it comes to the things we are commanded to do. But some of it is still dim. Sometimes when we ask, “Why?”, the only answer that comes back to us from God is that favorite adult catch-phrase, “Because I said so.”
We have to be willing to accept God’s commands at His word. We must set aside our desire to know the reasons and just accept that God knows best. When Peter is sitting in His boat listening to Jesus tell him to cast out his nets when Peter is absolutely positive there’s no fish to be caught, what does he say?
Luke 5:4-5
4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” (emphasis mine)
We may not understand. We may never be told the exact reason why God wants us to do something, but we need to take Peter’s example to heart and say, “Because you say so, I will do it.”