Day 8 Christmas Countdown Devotional: the angels–praising God even when you don’t understand his ways

Did you ever wonder if God made decisions that his angel-messengers didn’t understand? Like the decision to send his only son as a gift to humanity when the best accommodations that mankind would provide would be a feeding trough for animals? Yet immediately after detailing his birthplace to the shepherds, the angels erupt in praise to God.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:13-14).

There is a great deal about God that we don’t understand. Sometimes, especially when it affects us personally, it makes it difficult for us to praise God. But what if during those difficult times we focused on what we did understand about God. Here are three truths we can affirm:

God is all-powerful

Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you (Jeremiah 32:17).

God is all-wise

Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways (Romans 11:33, NLT).

God is all-loving

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him (1 John 4:8, 9)

While we may not understand any number of things about God, what we do understand can still give us the opportunity to praise to him. Perhaps that’s how the angels voiced “Glory to God in the highest!” while at the same time not fully understanding his investment in a weak, troubled and rebellious humanity.

Praise God for what you do understand about him, and you’ll find it will become easier to trust him for what you don’t.

PHIL MOSER is the author of the Biblical Strategies series, and the developer of 4M Training: a 13-week small group study for men. All of his resources can be found on amazon or at biblicalstrategies.com.