With All the Bad Things in the World,
How Can I Believe in God?
Over a year ago, a friend of mine came to me concerning the untimely death of his future son-in-law. It was such a heart wrenching time, especially for his daughter. After 9/11 and the accident that claimed the life of this young man, he doubted that there even was a God and went on to ask what He was playing at to allow such things to happen.
Does this describe the way you feel toward God? You wonder why he doesn’t stop terrorist attacks or why he won’t make your son return to you. Perhaps you wonder why your daughter was allowed to die in a senseless accident or why your husband or wife was taken away by God. These are such normal questions and thoughts, all with one thing in common. They all put the blame on God. Yet I would have to ask, is God where the blame truly should be placed?
As we consider this question, several thoughts come to mind. The first is that maybe God is not really omnipotent. If God was truly all powerful, why would he allow things like this to happen? I believe the answer lies in His gift of free will to us. This is the freedom to choose for ourselves what we will or will not do.
All too often we forget that there are consequences to our actions. We develop lung cancer after years of heavy smoking and decide it was the tobacco company’s fault. We eat fast food three times a day and decide it’s the restaurant’s fault for our being over weight. Someone else runs a red light and we suffer for it. We max out our credit cards and it must be the credit card company’s fault that we are in debt. Through all this we forget that we generate consequences for our decisions and the acts we commit.
“Now wait a minute!”, you say. “What about that running the red light you mentioned? I was driving safely, I had the green light, I proceed legally into the intersection and was hit. The other driver made the bad choice, why did I suffer for it?”
Just as we must experience the consequences of our actions, we must also experience the consequences of other people’s actions just as they experience the consequences of ours. God permits this because we have the right to choose. If he always stopped things like Sept. 11th, our freedom to choose would be compromised. He wants us to choose Him because we want to, not because we have to. Could God stop us from making wrong decisions and acting on them? Of course, but he doesn’t. If He always prevented wrong decisions, freedom of choice would be a lie and He can't bring Himself to do such a dastardly thing. God is not a liar! It is the reason that we can trust Him.
My second thought is that we tend to ask, “Is this God’s way of punishing me?” After all, if God really is all powerful then maybe He is causing these things to happen because I was bad. In Luke 13:4 Jesus asks about 18 people that were killed when a tower in Siloam collapsed. “… Do you think they were more guilt than the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you no!” I believe the lesson here is that sometimes we are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Someone falls off a roof, a bridge collapses or a man is hit by a stray bullet. We have accidents. It does happen. It is not God punishing you. He does discipline those He loves, but not unto death. That would be pointless as we could never learn a lesson from that. We must understand that discipline is correction not punishment. It is meant to help us back to the right path towards Him. Just because God permits something bad to happen does not mean He condones it. Much like the disclaimers on television or radio that the views expressed don’t necessarily represent those of management. Remember that God permits us to make our own decisions.
The third thing that comes to mind is how often we cry out, "God, why did you do this? What kind of game is He playing with us? Does He get a thrill out of our suffering??” Scripture tells us that all good things come from God. Would we call things like 9/11 or the untimely death of a young man ‘good’??? Hardly. Innocents have been hurt. Perhaps we are just looking in the wrong direction. Satan is the one that is looking to destroy us. He is that author of lies, deceit and trickery. Satan is the one that wants us dead! And he is so good at slight of hand that he manages to pass the blame on to God without our ever questioning it. There we are blaming God for our problems and all the while Satan is working behind the scenes to literally kill us!
We need to readjust our focus. We need to look to Jesus Christ for our understanding of God. As we have learned from scripture, Jesus was fully God and fully human at the time he walked the Earth. God among us! When Philip asked Jesus to show the disciples the Father in John 14:8, Jesus response was that they had seen the Father because they had seen him. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Jesus is the exact representation of God. Not a copy, not an image or a reflection - He is EXACT! So we CAN say with confidence that we have experienced the Father if and when we experience the Son.
Now thumb through the Gospels and read about Jesus’ activities. Was he playing tricks on people? Did he kill one person to punish another? Was he angry at people? Did he lack the power to meet peoples needs? An emphatic NO to all of these questions!! Jesus was concerned with people’s needs. He healed. He forgave. He showed people the way to heaven. Without question, He rebuked and corrected when He needed to set people straight. He did so lovingly, filled with compassion for those that were hurting and lost. He did not let traditions stand in the way of people’s needs. He sat with the sinner. He ate with the sinner. He comforted the sinner. This was His example for us.
God does not want us to suffer. He does not want us to be in pain. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." This is what God wants for us. He want’s our lives filled with joy, peace, patience and love! Does this truly sound like a God that wants bad things to happen or that looks to punish His children? Jesus speaking in Luke 10:18 says, ‘He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”’ Does the God that defeated Satan in heaven and on the cross sound like He isn’t powerful enough to intervene??
No, we must accept that while sometimes God does intervene He doesn’t always intervene. Sometimes He will help us to avoid making mistakes but He doesn’t always keep us from making mistakes. He doesn’t always protect us from the consequences of our decisions or the decisions of others. Sometimes we need to make the mistake, to experience the consequences of our actions and the actions of others so that we will learn. Sometimes or maybe most of the time to us it seems like He takes an agonizingly long time to notice our plight. II Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." Imagine if He was not quite so patient, where we would end up!
It is natural to cry out to our Father. He expects and wants this. He wants us all to come to Him with all of our pain. He is the one that can place healing salve on our, oh so open wounds. He understands anger and he understands it when it's directed at Him. Pour your heart out to Him. He doesn't duck the tough questions, He answers them. Most times we probably don't understand, but he does comfort us in our trials. He walks with us. He weeps with us. He places His arms around us and He doesn't let go.
For the moment, the best we can do is to blanket each other with prayer. God loves us all, my friend. He loves us so much He would rather die than live without any of us. Romans 8:28 comforts us with these words, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose." It’s hard. You feel weak. Let Him hold you. You feel alone. Let Him love you. You suffer agonizing pain. Let Him heal you. We each have the right to choose. It is one of His greatest gifts to us. We can choose Jesus Christ or we can choose to turn our back on Him. I choose Jesus!
How about you???
In His Name...
© 2004 Church of Hope, Inc.
How Can I Believe in God?
Over a year ago, a friend of mine came to me concerning the untimely death of his future son-in-law. It was such a heart wrenching time, especially for his daughter. After 9/11 and the accident that claimed the life of this young man, he doubted that there even was a God and went on to ask what He was playing at to allow such things to happen.
Does this describe the way you feel toward God? You wonder why he doesn’t stop terrorist attacks or why he won’t make your son return to you. Perhaps you wonder why your daughter was allowed to die in a senseless accident or why your husband or wife was taken away by God. These are such normal questions and thoughts, all with one thing in common. They all put the blame on God. Yet I would have to ask, is God where the blame truly should be placed?
As we consider this question, several thoughts come to mind. The first is that maybe God is not really omnipotent. If God was truly all powerful, why would he allow things like this to happen? I believe the answer lies in His gift of free will to us. This is the freedom to choose for ourselves what we will or will not do.
All too often we forget that there are consequences to our actions. We develop lung cancer after years of heavy smoking and decide it was the tobacco company’s fault. We eat fast food three times a day and decide it’s the restaurant’s fault for our being over weight. Someone else runs a red light and we suffer for it. We max out our credit cards and it must be the credit card company’s fault that we are in debt. Through all this we forget that we generate consequences for our decisions and the acts we commit.
“Now wait a minute!”, you say. “What about that running the red light you mentioned? I was driving safely, I had the green light, I proceed legally into the intersection and was hit. The other driver made the bad choice, why did I suffer for it?”
Just as we must experience the consequences of our actions, we must also experience the consequences of other people’s actions just as they experience the consequences of ours. God permits this because we have the right to choose. If he always stopped things like Sept. 11th, our freedom to choose would be compromised. He wants us to choose Him because we want to, not because we have to. Could God stop us from making wrong decisions and acting on them? Of course, but he doesn’t. If He always prevented wrong decisions, freedom of choice would be a lie and He can't bring Himself to do such a dastardly thing. God is not a liar! It is the reason that we can trust Him.
My second thought is that we tend to ask, “Is this God’s way of punishing me?” After all, if God really is all powerful then maybe He is causing these things to happen because I was bad. In Luke 13:4 Jesus asks about 18 people that were killed when a tower in Siloam collapsed. “… Do you think they were more guilt than the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you no!” I believe the lesson here is that sometimes we are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Someone falls off a roof, a bridge collapses or a man is hit by a stray bullet. We have accidents. It does happen. It is not God punishing you. He does discipline those He loves, but not unto death. That would be pointless as we could never learn a lesson from that. We must understand that discipline is correction not punishment. It is meant to help us back to the right path towards Him. Just because God permits something bad to happen does not mean He condones it. Much like the disclaimers on television or radio that the views expressed don’t necessarily represent those of management. Remember that God permits us to make our own decisions.
The third thing that comes to mind is how often we cry out, "God, why did you do this? What kind of game is He playing with us? Does He get a thrill out of our suffering??” Scripture tells us that all good things come from God. Would we call things like 9/11 or the untimely death of a young man ‘good’??? Hardly. Innocents have been hurt. Perhaps we are just looking in the wrong direction. Satan is the one that is looking to destroy us. He is that author of lies, deceit and trickery. Satan is the one that wants us dead! And he is so good at slight of hand that he manages to pass the blame on to God without our ever questioning it. There we are blaming God for our problems and all the while Satan is working behind the scenes to literally kill us!
We need to readjust our focus. We need to look to Jesus Christ for our understanding of God. As we have learned from scripture, Jesus was fully God and fully human at the time he walked the Earth. God among us! When Philip asked Jesus to show the disciples the Father in John 14:8, Jesus response was that they had seen the Father because they had seen him. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Jesus is the exact representation of God. Not a copy, not an image or a reflection - He is EXACT! So we CAN say with confidence that we have experienced the Father if and when we experience the Son.
Now thumb through the Gospels and read about Jesus’ activities. Was he playing tricks on people? Did he kill one person to punish another? Was he angry at people? Did he lack the power to meet peoples needs? An emphatic NO to all of these questions!! Jesus was concerned with people’s needs. He healed. He forgave. He showed people the way to heaven. Without question, He rebuked and corrected when He needed to set people straight. He did so lovingly, filled with compassion for those that were hurting and lost. He did not let traditions stand in the way of people’s needs. He sat with the sinner. He ate with the sinner. He comforted the sinner. This was His example for us.
God does not want us to suffer. He does not want us to be in pain. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." This is what God wants for us. He want’s our lives filled with joy, peace, patience and love! Does this truly sound like a God that wants bad things to happen or that looks to punish His children? Jesus speaking in Luke 10:18 says, ‘He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”’ Does the God that defeated Satan in heaven and on the cross sound like He isn’t powerful enough to intervene??
No, we must accept that while sometimes God does intervene He doesn’t always intervene. Sometimes He will help us to avoid making mistakes but He doesn’t always keep us from making mistakes. He doesn’t always protect us from the consequences of our decisions or the decisions of others. Sometimes we need to make the mistake, to experience the consequences of our actions and the actions of others so that we will learn. Sometimes or maybe most of the time to us it seems like He takes an agonizingly long time to notice our plight. II Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." Imagine if He was not quite so patient, where we would end up!
It is natural to cry out to our Father. He expects and wants this. He wants us all to come to Him with all of our pain. He is the one that can place healing salve on our, oh so open wounds. He understands anger and he understands it when it's directed at Him. Pour your heart out to Him. He doesn't duck the tough questions, He answers them. Most times we probably don't understand, but he does comfort us in our trials. He walks with us. He weeps with us. He places His arms around us and He doesn't let go.
For the moment, the best we can do is to blanket each other with prayer. God loves us all, my friend. He loves us so much He would rather die than live without any of us. Romans 8:28 comforts us with these words, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose." It’s hard. You feel weak. Let Him hold you. You feel alone. Let Him love you. You suffer agonizing pain. Let Him heal you. We each have the right to choose. It is one of His greatest gifts to us. We can choose Jesus Christ or we can choose to turn our back on Him. I choose Jesus!
How about you???
In His Name...
© 2004 Church of Hope, Inc.