G and W September 14, 2014

³ Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. Jeremiah 33:3 ESV

If you have any trial which seems intolerable, pray,—pray that it be relieved or changed. There is no harm in that. We may pray for anything, not wrong in itself, with perfect freedom, if we do not pray selfishly. One disabled from duty by sickness may pray for health, that he may do his work; or one hemmed in by internal impediments may pray for utterance, that he may serve better the truth and the right. Or, if we have a besetting sin, we may pray to be delivered from it, in order to serve God and man, and not be ourselves Satans to mislead and destroy. But the answer to the prayer may be, as it was to Paul, not the removal of the thorn, but, instead, a growing insight into its meaning and value. The voice of God in our soul may show us, as we look up to Him, that His strength is enough to enable us to bear it.
J.F. CLARKE

When taken in context of chapter 33, the third verse of Jeremiah is referring to the restoration of the nation of Israel. However, Tileson attaches the quote from J.F. Clarke to the verse.  That got me to thinking.

When we think of God revealing "great and wondrous" things, our minds, rightly so, go to things associated with prosperity- health, wealth, church growth, revival, etc.  However, is it not just as "great and wondrous" to know He will give us the strength to get through a divorce?  He will provide for us through unemployment.  He can comfort us through the death of a child.

Perhaps the "great and wondrous" is not the healing from cancer, but the souls that will be brought to heaven through our Christian witness as we travel through chemotherapy and radiation.  "Great and wondrous" might be the new church plant that results through the division of an established church.

His ways are not our ways.  His "great and wondrous" may not be our "great and wondrous".  Faith allows us to thank Him for the "great and wondrous" that may not seem so great or wondrous in this present age.