Why we don’t really want God to play by our rules

Every game has rules. Every society operates under a set of rules. Every family follows norms that function like rules. Your job comes with a set of rules, usually detailed in your employment contract or some type of handbook. In fact, nearly every aspect of human existence is governed by rules. Therefore, it’s only natural to expect faith to adhere to a defined set of rules.

If you’ve ever heard the phrase “the Lord works in mysterious ways,” you’re aware that God doesn’t always follow our predetermined rules. I have met countless people who have struggled to worship God because they don’t understand why He doesn’t conform to their expectations. As much as we would all like him to, God doesn’t play by our rules.

At first, it might seem confusing or frustrating that God doesn’t follow the rules we expect of him. At times, it often feels to me like I don’t understand why God allows certain circumstances to occur in my life. With this article, I want to convince you that it is far better to worship a God who doesn’t play by your set of rules than to create a god that you can control or predict with an orderly set of rules.

Seniority doesn’t equal maturity! Just because someone is older doesn’t make them wiser. It seems that the more life experiences a person encounters, the more lessons they learn, and the better they become at avoiding the pitfalls and mistakes that many of us younger men and women will eventually face. Unfortunately, that’s not always true. Thank God He doesn’t always adhere to our expected rules. If God always acted as we expected, the oldest child would always receive the best of everything, even if they don’t deserve it.

There are many examples of God choosing to promote the younger family member over the older one. In every example, God’s actions thoroughly confused the people involved. In Bible times, the oldest male sibling ALWAYS got the most respect, attention, and inheritance. This family practice continues in many societies around the globe today.

So, it’s easy to understand why families might feel confused or frustrated when God intentionally chose to elevate the younger brother over the older one, as in the case of Manasseh and Ephraim. Every time God didn’t conform to expectations, parents had to acknowledge that God perceives something about the human soul that no one else can see… including parents.

Good behavior doesn’t equal a good heart! God cares about our attitude AND our actions. Anyone can hide their true feelings, even when their actions seem to match our expectations. If God always played by our rules, He would be deceived by people who appear committed to a cause, even when they are just pretending.

Deep down, we want to worship a God big enough to measure attitudes rather than observe actions. There’s an almost endless list of employers and companies who have been deceived by someone’s work performance only to be tricked when their true motivations emerge later. A God who can read the human heart cannot be fooled.

Some of the worst examples of corporate corruption and theft have come from employees who seemed to be the most committed or hard-working. It was their level of commitment that caused leaders to let down their guard and be taken advantage of in the process. Our God is big enough that He doesn’t give bonuses based on performance alone; He examines attitudes and actions. God expects both to be in alignment.

I’m deliberately using your job as a play on words. The Bible contains a character named Job, whose story is the perfect example of how God doesn’t play by our rules. Bad things still happen to “good” people, such as… Job. Job was not only a great man but also a good man.

Job’s greatness was reflected in his immense wealth. This book of the Bible describes the extent of Job's wealth in terms of land and livestock; by today's standards, he was extremely wealthy. However, in God's eyes, Job was not just rich but also a good man. He was so good that God described him as more righteous than any other man on earth.

Suffering doesn’t equal displeasure! You can’t miss this from the Bible’s record of what happened to Job. Job suffered more loss and pain than anyone in the Bible, except for Jesus. If doing good things and being a good person guaranteed that God would prevent bad things from happening to you, God would owe Job an apology for what happened to him. If being perfect guaranteed that God would ensure you live on easy street, he would also owe an apology to Jesus!

We don’t need God to make life easy for us because our greatest strength only comes through struggle. Any athlete can tell you that they make the greatest gains after the hardest workouts. Talk to anyone you know with great faith, and they will all tell you the same thing… it was only after going through great trials that their faith became strong. God doesn’t play by our rules because He values a deep relationship more than comfort.