Does knowing why really help?

As I was cleaning off my desk, I came across my Christmas letter from Debbie Perry. (Debbie is truly an angel, I worked with her at FamilyLife and she pours into everyone who she comes in contact with. She has also battled ovarian cancer for over five years).

I hadn't stuck her letter with the rest of the Christmas cards, because it had touched me when I read it. But this week when I found it and reread it, it just didn't touch me - IT spoke to me.

Deb shares an excerpt from a devotion by Ney Bailey (about Elisabeth Elliot.)
Ney Bailey: "I'll never forget the time I invited Elisabeth Elliot to come speak to our women who were ministering in Eastern Europe. I was seated by Elisabeth during a break when an obviously anxious young woman came and stood in front of her. With a voice full of angst and stress she began to explain her situation to Elisabeth:
Woman: "My husband and I moved here from the states with our two children, and we have looked and looked and looked for a house to live in and after all these months we have been unable to find anything! We have been forced to live with first one family for a few months...and now we have been with yet another family for several months. School is about to start again, and we still haven't found a house!"
Elisabeth: {calmly} "You must not need a house."
That was the last response the young woman expected Elisabeth to have after her elaborate explanation of desperately needing a house and not finding one.
Woman: {astonished, mouth open, quizzically} "I must not need a house?"
Elisabeth: {authoritatively} "You must not need a house...'MY God shall supply ALL YOUR NEEDS according to His riches in Christ Jesus'. If you needed a house, you would have a house."
Woman: {stunned} "I don't have a house because I don't need a house?" " I don't have a house because I don't NEED a house... I don't have a HOUSE because I don't need a HOUSE..."
I saw her change before my very eyes as she repeated these unbelievable words... convincing herself and coming to the truth of Elisabeth's words as she repeated them over and over.
Woman: "Wait till I tell my husband we don't have a house because we don't need a house! I'm going to go phone him right now!"
She had come to Elisabeth full of anxiety and puzzlement. She walked away in awe of the truth of what she had heard and received into her heart.

Debbie went on in her letter to say perhaps He doesn't explain because knowing and understanding His way might not help us all that much. Stop and ask yourself: Does knowing why really help? She shares that the application is different for each of us... but for her, she came to realize she didn't need to be healed from her cancer and didn't need to know 'why' the cancer had remained.

What struck me down in the story, was what things or what situations in my life am I so focused on that I can't see anything else. He convicted me that I want more than anything to have a house that I can hang the sign "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" over the front door and I want to know why God hasn't given me that HOUSE. Is wanting the 'house' wrong? No. But when I'm stuck and can't get God to answer me - Either give me my house or tell me why I can't have it - I'm missing His truth. And so many other things that I focus on and struggle with, so many unanswered prayers. Why Lord? I needed Elisabeth to whisper to me "You must not need a house". Our God will supply ALL my needs and 'does knowing why really help'?

What's your 'house'? What is it that you desire and God has chosen not to act on? Hear the sweet words "You must not need it, because Our precious God will supply ALL our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus". Simplistic truth that each of you probably already know and accept, but that this old lady needed to learn today.