Victor Kiplangat became the first Ugandan to win a Commonwealth marathon during the 2022 Games, crossing the finishing line with an impressive lead time. Yet the race wasn’t straightforward. Kiplangat got lost as he navigated Birmingham’s streets. “The motorcycle riders were confusing me,” he explained. “But I still made it to the finish.”
Scripture compares our lives to a marathon; we’re running “the race marked out for us” by God (Hebrews 12:1). But, like Kiplangat, we often get confused about which way to go and how to navigate unexpected diversions. Sometimes we wish God would mark His paths more clearly!
Instead of getting frustrated by God’s “unsearchable” ways, Paul rejoiced that “his paths [are] beyond tracing out!” (Romans 11:33). In his letter to the Christians in Rome, having explored God’s salvation of sinners—and His mercy towards the disobedient (v. 32)—Paul admits that God’s gracious ways defy human logic. Yet they are so much better; full of rich “wisdom and knowledge” (v. 33).
When we feel lost or confused in our own race, Paul reminds us that we run with the One who needs no counsellor (v. 34). “For from him and through him and for him are all things” (v. 36). His ways may be beyond understanding, but His goodness and power towards us are unmistakeable. We can trust Him to run with us, and when we go wrong, He will bring us back to His paths.
By Chris Wale
REFLECT & PRAY
What has disrupted your race for Jesus recently? How might rejoicing in God’s wisdom and nearness bring you peace, even as you wait for His leading?
Father, Your awesome ways are far beyond my limited understanding. Help me to stay close to You today and trust Your leading.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Paul isn’t the first biblical writer to speak of God being unknowable (Romans 11:33–35). Two thousand years earlier, Job (who is believed to have lived around the time of Abraham) asked, “Can you fathom the mysteries of God?” (Job 11:7). The prophet Isaiah aptly summed up our incapacity to fully know God: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8). But God desires us to know Him: “I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord” ( Jeremiah 24:7; see Hebrews 8:10–11). The apostle John tells us that “no one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God . . . has made him known” (John 1:18). Jesus Himself affirmed, “If you knew me, you would know my Father also” (8:19). Even though we can’t comprehend everything about God, John says everyone who knows Jesus knows Him ( 17:3).
K. T. Sim
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