Never Despair

From: Selwyn Hughes' "Every Day Light"

2 Corinthians 4:8 "We are afficted in every way possible, but we are not crushed; full of doubts, we never despair."

Our spiritual perplexities would never arise if we started out by being prepared not to understand immediately the things that God does or allows. We must accept that one of the fundamental principles of the Christian life is the truth that there will be many times when God will work things out in a manner exactly opposite to the way we think He should.

When we are dealing with such a great and mighty God it should not surprise us that He allows things to happen which we find perplexing. We should note, however, that perplexity is not sinful. It only becomes wrong when we allow it to drive us to despair. 

The apostle Paul, as our text for today shows us, was perplexed but he was not in despair. Make sure you understand the distinction. It is not foolish or wrong to say: "I don't know what is happening." It is only foolish to say: "God doesn't know what is happening."