Why Did God Make Me This Way

Questions This Sermon Answers:

1. Why did God make me the way I am?

Scripture answers that your purpose comes from your Maker, not from yourself. As Dr. Holt puts it, the first theological statement is that there is a God, and you are not Him; you are a created being, so a Creator has the say. Psalm 139:16 declares, "in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me." A hammer and a spoon get their use from their maker, and so do you, which is why you must look up to God and His revelation to know why you exist.

2. What does "fearfully and wonderfully made" mean in Psalm 139?

It means that every person is the deliberate, skilled work of God, not a random product of nature. David says, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works" (Psalm 139:14). Like a master weaver, God "knitted" us together in the womb at a molecular level, the same God who made the cosmos. The phrase magnifies both God's might and His tenderness, and it grounds the dignity of every human life.

3. Does Psalm 139 teach that life begins in the womb?

Yes; David traces his existence and his relationship with God back to before his birth. "You covered me in my mother's womb... My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret" (Psalm 139:13-15). God is the one forming the child, fashioning each finger with purpose. As Dr. Holt notes, this means anything from abortion to euthanasia strikes against the very hand of God in creation.

4. Why do we suffer if God is good and in charge?

Because we live in a fallen world, where the whole created realm fell into chaos through sin. The honest answer is to be realistic: jumping into a pool, it is no use asking why you are wet. Why does one have diabetes and another cancer We cannot always say, and anyone who claims to know exactly is speaking out of turn, but the common denominator is sin, for "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). The Westminster Confession (6.6) ties our miseries to the fall.

5. How can God be both sovereign and good when life is painful?

God is not aloof from our pain; He sent His Son to die, and "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). He weeps with those who weep and, as Dr. Holt pictures it, cups our chin and turns it upward, reminding us what we were made for. Even Paul's thorn in the flesh was met with, "My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Corinthians 12:9). A good, loving, all-powerful God ordains all things ultimately for the best, even when we cannot yet see it.

6. What does it mean that God has written my days in His book?

Psalm 139:16 says, "in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them." This is God's decree, our days written before we walked them. Dr. Holt stresses that God does not merely foreknow but decrees the end from the beginning. The Westminster Confession (3.1) teaches that God ordains whatsoever comes to pass, yet without being the author of sin.

7. Does Psalm 139 teach predestination and God's eternal decree?

It teaches that God ordains the believer's days, which is the heart of providence, election, and predestination. Dr. Holt observes that the deeper reason the world rejects creation is not science but autonomy; if God made you, He has a say in how you live. People prefer "grandpa ape" to keep themselves as the measure of all things. Psalm 139 confronts that, presenting a God with an agenda who decrees the future (Westminster Confession 3 and 5).

8. Are we free agents, or does God control everything?

We have real freedom, but it is bounded by the nature God gave us. As Dr. Holt illustrates, you cannot choose to fly across the room, because your nature gives you no such option; free agency is real but capped. The Westminster Confession (9) teaches that the will is genuinely free yet, since the fall, unable of itself to turn to God. We are responsible creatures, not autonomous ones, and Psalm 139 reminds us our days are fashioned by Him.

9. How should knowing God has ordained my future make me feel?

It should encourage rather than frighten you, once you consider who is at the controls. Dr. Holt asks whether you would choose a pilot with a flawless record and infinite vision or one with a spotty record and double vision. Given our own limited sight, the wise choose God to pilot their lives, for had we piloted our own, most would have crashed long ago. David trusted both God's hands and God's plans, and rejoiced.

10. Will God really make all things new, including our suffering?

Yes; in God's time every sickness, ache, and sorrow is, with a snap, gone. Revelation 21:4 promises that God "will wipe away every tear from their eyes." Dr. Holt notes that even the happiest place on earth still has crying children, but not so in glory. Each of us is a work in progress, and our God makes all things new, so His mercies are new every morning and we will keep growing in Christ forever (Westminster Confession 32-33).