Content to be your disciple ...

Awfully quiet out there, anyone still around?

I read an interesting prayer in my Seeking God's Face yesterday:
'Bruising God, if you haven't abandoned me to chance or fortune, then help me to understand the suffering of Job, of this world, of my life.  I don't know what to do with a God like you - too free, too wild, too beyond my control.  I know you are not safe, but I trust you are good.  Amen

This means a lot to me now.  I have been struggling with prayer.  I have an assignment on prayer, and I struggle as I watch friends around me suffering, while prayers go seemingly unanswered . . . . 

The prayer above was written in response to Belgic Confession Article 13 (If you don't read these things, you should, they are amazing!)

Article 13: The Doctrine of God's Providence
We believe that this good God, after he created all things, did not abandon them to chance or fortune but leads and governs them according to his holy will, in such a way that nothing happens in this world without his orderly arrangement.Yet God is not the author of, nor can he be charged with, the sin that occurs. For his power and goodness are so great and incomprehensible that he arranges and does his work very well and justly even when the devils and wicked men act unjustly.
We do not wish to inquire with undue curiosity into what he does that surpasses human understanding and is beyond our ability to comprehend. But in all humility and reverence we adore the just judgments of God, which are hidden from us, being content to be Christ's disciples, so as to learn only what he shows us in his Word, without going beyond those limits.
This doctrine gives us unspeakable comfort since it teaches us that nothing can happen to us by chance but only by the arrangement of our gracious heavenly Father. He watches over us with fatherly care, keeping all creatures under his control, so that not one of the hairs on our heads (for they are all numbered) nor even a little bird can fall to the ground^20 without the will of our Father.
In this thought we rest, knowing that he holds in check the devils and all our enemies, who cannot hurt us without his permission and will.
For that reason we reject the damnable error of the Epicureans, who say that God involves himself in nothing and leaves everything to chance.
^20 Matt. 10:29-30

Wow, in 1561 someone struggled with what I struggle with, and they were content to formalize and publish their struggle.  Content that it passes human understanding, beyond our ability to comprehend.  And while we may not like it, we are called to respond with humility and reverence, and the judgments are just.  Their unknowing isn't a radical far out theory, it's a doctrinal standard of the CRC and RC . . .

Lord, make me content to simply be your disciple.