I Kings 13  The Lord sent a prophet to tell Jeroboam that the altar he was making sacrifices on was going to split apart and that one day a king named Josiah would burn the false priests on it.  As Jeroboam reached out to condemn the prophet his hand shriveled up.  God's authority became perfectly displayed right before his eyes.  Jeroboam was stopped in his tracks and asked the prophet to pray for his healing.  God answered that prayer. 

The rest of this chapter is  difficult.  The man of God had been told to not eat or drink anything there in the land.  He refused anything from Jeroboam and left to return back to Judah. But, an old prophet heard about this, chased after the man of God and convinced him that an angel had told him to have him come back and stay with him. The old prophet was lying.  The younger prophet fell for it... and ended up dying on the road home. 

Evil Jeroboam lived on.  The old lying prophet lived on.  The young man of God died. 

God's ways are not our ways.. we cannot begin to understand some of the ways God works.  Yet we know that He is always good... always wise.. and always working to fulfill His purposes. 

We may constantly ask "Why?" But, we do not always get an answer.  In fact, most of the time God does not explain things to us.  He just asks us.. commands us.. to trust Him.  Trust Him that He knows best. Trust Him to complete His plans.. perfectly. Trust Him when we don't understand.  As the proverbs passage says:  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. "  To "trust in the Lord" - means to lean and have confidence in Him..to be supported by Him;  To not lean on our own understanding - to not support ourselves by what we think we know.   "In all your ways".. on your journey and in your conversation.. day by day.. "acknowledge Him" - SEE Him in everything you do, every path your take.. observe, recognize, sense.. KNOW the He is there.  In other words - Live in His Presence.  Just what Solomon had been told to do... 

Father in heaven, we come before You with thanksgiving - to honor Your Name and to give You our praise. Your ways are higher than our ways and Your thoughts than our thoughts.  Yet You show us mercy and give us grace, that we might come boldly to Your throne and call upon You in times of need. Help us Gracious God, to be completely obedient and faithful. Keep our feet from falling. Keep our hands from doing evil and our hearts from what is vile.  Deliver us from evil and from the evil one, from lying lips and false idols.  Salvation is from Your hands and we are so grateful.  Hallelujah! In Jesus' name.  Amen.