- v Last week, as I was talking with a pastor I knew, he shared with me the story of how he had been listening to a friend describe the details of his horrible divorce. When that friend had finished telling the story of his sadly failed marriage, he then looked at the pastor and said, “Why is God doing this to me"?
- v Several months ago our nation had a remembrance of the 9/11 tragedy. During that time, I was also sadly reminded of something else. After the horrible terrorist attack, many people felt compelled to ask the question, “If God loves us so much, why did He let this happen?" That question surfaced in many ways over the media (and in peoples' hearts) for the next several days. It was disheartening to hear it.
- v Just the other day I had a most striking visit with a person who is battling a severe lung disease. During our conversation she looked at me and said," Pastor, why is God letting this happen to me?" I quietly looked at the pack of cigarettes at her bedside and struggled to not say the obvious.
All three of these real-life examples reveal a powerful willingness of people to blame God when He does not act in the manner that they feel He should. For some strange reason, it seems natural to want to hold God accountable when things are going badly. After all, doesn’t He love us enough to keep bad things from happening to us?
It is very common to ask that question while tending to ignore the wrong decisions and the poor paths we have chosen. We want to blame God for not heading off the bad results so that we can try to escape our own responsibility. This begins to reveal a deep problem rooted in ignorance, self-centeredness, and usually conceit.
But regardless of the reasons why we blame God, people seem to have a natural feeling that God should always see things from a perspective similar to ours. And then, in fact, He should act in such a way as we would.
For example, if I knew that a baby in the womb had a formative problem, and I had the power to supernaturally fix it, then I would do whatever was needed to heal the child. This makes sense doesn't it?
Well then, doesn't God know everything? Doesn't He know when a baby is becoming deformed? Surely, with the power that He has, He ought to fix the unborn child.
I know that I would if I were Him.
You see, when God does not act in the way that we naturally feel that He should, questions about His goodness surface as our faith in Him gets challenged and shaken. We begin to question His real care and purported love for people.
Have you faced any of these questions?
-- Why can't I find a job?
-- Why am I my losing my home?
-- Why won't God heal my child's cancer?
-- Why am I going bankrupt?
-- Why am I so afraid?
-- Why is God absent when I so desperately need him?
-- Why can't I find someone to truly love me?
-- Why is God allowing this to happen to me?
All of us are going to deal with questions like these at sometime or other. Our response to them is so crucial! When thoughts like these confront us, it can become easy to question whether or not God really loves us.
We have all done it...........
There are several ways to approach this dilemma concerning us and God, but we will look at only two for right now.
I. One of the approaches that we can try is to manipulate God.
Yes, that really is what I just said.
Somewhere in the failed system of our humanness, we have developed the idea that we can force people to do what we want by embarrassing or intimidating them. (Some managers use this method of motivation with their employees, and many others work this way with their spouses and kids.) This technique works very poorly with people, and is most often the worst form of motivation. Just so that you really know............ it doesn't work at all with God.
When we try to provoke a response from God by saying things such as, “Why would God allow..... (you can fill in the blank), it has the subtle idea - and challenge behind it - of embarrassing God because He did not act in accord with the way that we expected or wanted Him to.
Be clear on this.
When we approach God this way, we are saying:
" I know what is good to do in this case. God, how is it that you do not? You did
not do anything at all to help, and I believe that you missed a great
opportunity to do good. Why aren't you as good as I thought you were?
Sometimes You make me so angry because I just don't understand You!"
Of course, we wouldn't say these things out loud, but, if we are honest, our spirit has mulled over these challenges many times.
When we have thoughts like these, they presuppose that......
1. We always know the right thing to do in every situation, and
2. God should have the integrity to do what we know is right because, after all, it is easy to see what is the right thing to do.
For example:
-- God should always provide the money......
-- God should always heal the sick.......
-- God should end all suffering and hunger forever.....
We all suppose that we are completely right in our evaluations of these situations, so then, why doesn't God jump in line with our thinking?
When we get into this vulnerable state of challenging and doubting God, Satan will push all sorts of things at us.
-- We are prompted to become angry at God.
-- We may refuse to believe in Him or trust in Him.
-- We question His love, power, and intent for us.
Sadly, we feel justified in our actions because God did not do what we believed was the right thing to do. When we have feelings like that, things can get even more screwed up within us.
-- We can begin to question the Scriptures.
-- We can become arrogant within our own mal-formed wisdom.
-- We launch into the mode of judging God and His motives.
-- When we do these things, we begin to regard our own judgment higher than God's.
We are in deep trouble………..
--------------------------------------------------------
II. Another way to approach this problem is one of trust.
Trust.........
This is what God expected from the very beginning. He was expecting Adam and Eve to trust what He said. When they failed to honor His instructions, they royally screwed everything up for themselves and all the creation that God had made.
Exhibited in the rest of Scripture, however, is God constantly giving instructions, promises, and warnings. Throughout all of these, God invites mankind to trust Him wholeheartedly. When they decide not to do so, then they invite the consequences upon them. Whether it pertains to marriage, finances, prayer, salvation, or the future,-- God just asks everyone to trust Him.
Think about these stories from the Bible....
- God gave instructions to a guy named Gideon about a battle that was coming and then expected Gideon to trust him. Gideon did so, and took on an army of thousands with only 300 warriors that God had provided for him. He won the battle.
- God gave directions to Joshua about the walls of Jericho falling down and then, though the instructions were strange, expected Joshua to trust Him. Joshua did the things that God told him to and the walls fell in a miraculous way.
- When Jesus told Peter and the others about how that He was going to be crucified, Peter emphatically said, "No" to the idea of it. The Lord’s answer to Peter revealed something deep. He said, "Get behind me Satan!" Peter, at that moment, was refusing to trust what the Lord said and Jesus was showing him that those kind of thoughts were from Satan, and not acceptable.
- Jesus went to the cross and died for the payment of our sins. In the offer of salvation to us, the Lord instructs us to trust Him as Savior. Those who do so, receive eternal life.
It's always been about trust ..........trusting what God says just because of who He is.
Job is another example for us to examine.
When Job was expected to approach God in trust, it must've been hard.
-- What had his children done to die?
-- What had his servants and animals done to be stolen and abducted?
-- What had Job done to be covered with sores and to suffer such severe pain?
The answer is, absolutely nothing.
Yet, because Job decided to respond to God in trust, there are things revealed about God in this recorded story that we could not know in any other way. If Job had not suffered those things in his life, all of us in the kingdom of God would've missed out on knowing some innate truths about God because the book of Job would not have been written in the way that it was.
Would you like to know some mind blowing things about God and His creation? Read the last several chapters of the book of Job.
Here is a short part of Chapter 38...
Job 38:4-17 NLT
4 "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you
know so much.
5 Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line?
6 What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone
7 as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
8 "Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the womb,
9 and as I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it in thick darkness?
10 For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores.
11 I said, 'This far and no farther will you come. Here your proud waves must
stop!'
12 "Have you ever commanded the morning to appear and caused the dawn to
rise in the east?
13 Have you made daylight spread to the ends of the earth, to bring an end to
the night's wickedness?
14 As the light approaches, the earth takes shape like clay pressed beneath a
seal; it is robed in brilliant colors.
15 The light disturbs the wicked and stops the arm that is raised in violence.
16 "Have you explored the springs from which the seas come? Have you
explored their depths?
17 Do you know where the gates of death are located? Have you seen the gates of
utter gloom?
….Some cool stuff concerning God and His creation………
-----------------------------------------------------------
Trusting someone is not always an easy thing to do. Especially if you have been hurt in life. (...and which of us has not?)
Maybe it was...
-- a spouse.
-- a friend.
-- your parents.
-- on your job.
-- at your church.
But listen! God has never betrayed anyone who trusted in Him. Our understanding of the circumstances in our lives will sometimes skew our view of what God is doing and make us question this truth.
-- When we get hurt,
-- when things do not go our way,
-- when we get sick, or
-- when we get down,
…..it becomes easier to feel that God has betrayed our trust in Him.
All this goes back to us expecting God to act the way that we think that He should.
We are not asked to trust Him because He keeps us from hurt, pain, disappointment, sickness, or need; we are asked to trust Him regardless of them.
That is real trust and it powerfully grows our faith.
Consider this scripture for a moment………
Hebrews 11:6 NLT
6 And it is impossible to please God without faith.......
...our trust translates into faith.....
You can trust Him..... really…… you can.
As this talk is ending, I encourage you to remember this truth…..
Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT
8 "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the LORD. "And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.
With much love......
Humbly Submitted,
Dan
Posts
