In the early days with the Lord, the disciples asked Him in chapter 9 and verse 2 of John’s gospel: “And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”. Many of us have similar mindset in how we reason. We reason often that what has happened must have been the result of a sin or because one has not prayed enough. How we reason should not omit the Sovereignty of God which was what our Lord Jesus made the disciples realise in His response to their question. How we reason could affect our trust, our faith, or results in us excusing ourselves from right decisions in matters that shape our destiny. Some saw our Lord Jesus on the cross and jeered at Him: “He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him” (Mathew 27:42). Still at the same scene, a Roman centurion saw what happened, he reasoned and said: ” When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died, he exclaimed, “This man truly was the Son of God!” ( Mark 15: 39).
In the book of Daniel chapter 3 verse 17, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego declared: “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king”. If they had perished in the fire, how would you have reasoned?, that God was not able to save? No circumstance should ever make us to withdraw from God or to diminish Him in our hearts. Job declares in chapter 13 verse 15 concerning God: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him”. Shall the Judge of the whole earth not do right? (Genesis 18: 5). We should judge God right and faithful and true in every situation and be circumspect in how we reason in our hearts before Him. Our reasoning should follow the path of prophet Habakkuk as he declares in chapter 3 verse 17: “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation”. This is how we should reason with the LORD.
On the way to Rome under the guardian of the roman soldiers to seek for justice, Apostle Paul suffered a shipwreck which could have been avoided had the captain listened to him. On the island of Malta where they finally ended and while gathering firewood, a snake driven by the heat from the fire ¹fastened itself upon Paul’s hand. How did the people of the island reason? We read the account in Acts 28 verse 4: “When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live”. We saw God use this event for His glory and the salvation of men. We should quit being judgemental in our reasoning and train ourselves to reason straight. Apostle Paul demonstrated this straight and right reasoning in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 14: “…because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died”. Such reasoning as this drives men to God and this is how we must reason.
The purity of our hearts determine how we reason. To the pure all things are pure (Titus 1: 15). Of course some events are consequences of our sin and our obstinacy against caution. We are not to interpret every event from this standpoint. There are situations where a righteous man do suffer in God’s act of sovereignty to show forth His glory. It is to bring us to a right state of reasoning and to turn to God. If the righteous be scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and sinners (1 Peter 4: 18). Whatever the circumstance might be, it should lead us to right reasoning, adjudging that God will do right and also that God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours. There was account of a devout man of God whose children did not believe in the God of their father. The man was full of prayer for his sons and also that the LORD will make his exit glorious in a way that will speak to his sons and show that it pays to be in God. Unfortunately the man died in pain and his sons reasoned that if their father who was devout could end up this way, what would become of them. They all repented and turned to the LORD. God’s ways and understanding of events are higher than ours. Many judge God by the circumstances around them or in which they are in. If God is love, if God is merciful, if God is, how come there’s so many misery in the world they reasoned and turn away from God. They fail to take to heart the truth: “The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s; But the earth He has given to the children of men”. (Psalm 115:16). The miseries on earth which are consequences of man’s actions and choices should rather have evoked repentance in man and cause a return to God. Believers should be wary of any reasoning that draw them away from God. As Apostle Paul admonished, we should avoid vain philosophy (Colossians 2: 8), foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain (Titus 3: 9).
The just shall live by faith. Faith does not waver, therefore the just shall not waver. The rock from where we are hewned, that is our role model, even father Abraham did not stagger in unbelief. He judged God who had made him a promise faithful. Even when the time to prove where his heart lies, regarding his son Isaac, who was the evidence of a promise by God, he reasoned right, the Judge of the whole earth will do what is right, He will provide Himself a sacrifice.
The just shall live by faith. Faith is settled, it is the evidence, the certainty of things hoped for. Many believers are not settled, they pluck themselves quickly from their source, the Eternal God, when things do not go the way they envisage or cannot fathom what is happening.
Faith sees the end, it is the substance of things hoped for. The end of our faith, is the salvation of our souls. Since we believe in the God of salvation, we should reason like Him that all things shall work together for our good that is our salvation and will redound to the glory of the God of our salvation.
How we reason, how we judge God in situations determine how deeply rooted we are in God. The children of Israel forgot too soon the God of their salvation. They forgot the plagues in Egypt, the parting of the Red sea and their total redemption from the Egyptian army. As for this man Moses who brought us, we do not know what has become of him, they reasoned and demanded of Aaron to make them a god who will go before them in Exodus 32 verse 1. They made unto themselves a calf of gold for a god even when they saw the mighty acts of God. How we reason is also a reflection of how much we endure the teachings of the word of God. The book of Psalms in chapter admonished us not to company with the ungodly, the sinners and the scorners but we should rather delight in the word of God. In Mark chapter 8 verse 15, the Lord Jesus was teaching the disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod but they reasoned it was because they took no bread with them hence the Lord speaks. As believers, we must learn to compare spiritual things with spiritual and make the prayer of Paul our constant prayer: that God should fill us the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding (Colossians 1: 9). How we reason is important in our walk with God.
As believers, we are to fulfill the joy of our Lord Jesus, the joy that was set before Him. This joy is in this: that we may know God, the only true God and love Him; and also that we love one another wherein everyone do not mind there on things alone but also the things of others (Phillipians 2: 4). When we know and love God, we will not judge Him wrongly by surrounding circumstances and we will not judge others wrongly but our hearts and our thoughts will be with the LORD God and we will be in fear and we will reason right. Though the LORD God has knowledge of every event both good and evil, He is not the one that visit men with evil but He works to turn evil into good for men and this redound unto His glory. The fiery furnace set up in the days of Nebuchadnezzar was not by God, it was the contraption of men but God worked in the circumstance to deliver the three Hebrew young men and to glory Himself as the LORD God that saves. Our God is good and upright and in Him is no unrighteousness at all (Psalm 92:15).
