Mike Novotny - Trust What You Can't See
See, God never claims that his plans or purposes should make sense to you. Wow! We are here! Jesus was here, not around here. But here. Earlier this year, I got to explore Israel. I'm sitting, literally, in the place where Jesus' feet touched. I saw some amazing places. The old city of Jerusalem. In the Garden of Gethsemane. Beautiful Nazareth. At the Mount of Beatitudes. Capernaum, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. And I can't wait to share these video devotions with you.
Aah! I'm standing here in a gorgeous place. I'm about one percent of the way up to the top of Mount Arbel, which is just a mile or so from the Sea of Galilee. It's a beautiful day in northern Israel. Maybe you can hear the wind, a little bit in my microphone because as I get higher and higher the more things I can see and the more beautiful the picture gets. You know, just coming a couple of feet up this mountain, I'm starting to see all the way down the trail to my left. I can see the traffic, blocks up the road. I can see kids on the other side of this valley walking with their father. The things that I couldn't see just a few feet below, I can start to see like I never have before. And I can only imagine what I could see if I was at the top of that mountain. I could see so much in every direction. And that simple fact of elevation, reminds me of the power of God's Word.
See, God says that when he thinks about your life, your future, the plans he has for you, he doesn't see things from the level that you see them. He is so far exalted that he sees things you couldn't possibly see from your perspective. I love how the prophet Isaiah said it in Isaiah 55. God said, See, God never claims that his plans or purposes should make sense to you. He simply says, I'm God. The way I do things is not the way you do things. The way I think about life or death or suffering or pain or whatever, you couldn't possibly fathom it. And that humbles us. And it asks us to believe that God's not just like us. He's so far exalted, he's so far above us, higher than Mount Arbel is over the Sea of Galilee. And so we trust him.
Some of you know a famous passage from the Proverbs that says, I'm reminded of that today as I see things that I couldn't see before. And I can only imagine what God sees when he looks at you. Your life, your future. So don't doubt him. Don't question him. Don't be afraid. Instead, know that your God has got this, he sees this, he knows this and he has amazing plans for that. Trust in him with all your heart and you'll never have to be afraid. And that's another lesson we learned here in the beautiful hills of Galilee.