I don't know exactly what I'm going to write about today. It has been a hard week. I wish that I understood God better. I heard someone say once, "If God can do anything, why doesn't he stop suffering?" I have come to realize that suffering brings us closer to God and that through our trials we learn our most important lessons. But there are some things that really don't seem necessary to my human mind. I know Isiah says that our thoughts are not God's thoughts and neither are God's ways our ways. As the Heavens are high above the earth so are God's ways higher that ours.
But if God has the power and ability to change events and people's hearts... It is hard for me to understand some of the current events in my friends' lives. I guess I feel like what I have always thought was reality is being proven wrong to me. God gives and takes away. And there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason for either.
I always thought that if you were in "right standing" with God, and you were praying and following his commandments to the best of your ability that you would be protected. Someone said if Jesus suffered, how can I expect better? How can I expect not to suffer? Because God says He loves us! Because He is a Good God! He also says that he will provide for our needs and watch over us. That we can hide in the safety of his wing! So why is there so much hurt? Why don't His angles stand guard and keep evil men away from us? Why doesn't God make more direct changes to our world? Free choice isn't all its cracked up to be.
5 comments:
You are starting to sound like some of the rabid atheists that I've seen at the Problem of Evil discussions who would be happy to give up their free will for a lack of suffering.
My veiw is this. 76 years is a blink of an eye when compared to eternity. We came from nothing, with nothing. We are going to glory with God in heaven forever. Whatever happens to us on the way, ultimately, pales beside that awesome journey.
Suffering absorbs our attentions. We spend much of our adult lives trying to avoid it or minimize it, in our own lives and in others. On the other hand, I spent over a year of my childhood obsessing over the Millenium Falcon Playset. Now that doesn't see that important.
I can imagine a time, after we have been in Heaven for a few thousand years, when we will look back at these events without pain, anger, or regret. Except perhaps that we missed aan oppurtunity to learn to know God a little more a little earlier.
"I always thought that if you were in "right standing" with God, and you were praying and following his commandments to the best of your ability that you would be protected."...
Interesting thought. I've thought a lot about this exact thing since meeting you, accepting Christ, etc. I was raised to think that just by "doing good" (what God expects) will grant you this protection - the good life. I think we misinterpret this protection. It's not a wall to deflect the bad or the painful. It's more like, a blanket that when we hit our lowest or most painful, covers us and wraps us in love. It slowly comforts us, eeking the pain and badness away. But it never was meant to sheild us from this pain or badness. It's not meant to stop it from happening to us if we follow His path.
The protection is not an armor to shield us, but strength to fill us. It's from the inside-out, not the outside-in.
My expereince has been that even if we choose to stay in "right standing" wth God, we have serious potential to suffer. Jesus was in right standing with God when he suffered unto death on the cross.
How many people of that day thought that Jesus was not obeying God and so he was punished on the cross; or how many people thought if he really was God he would end the suffering? Thankfully, choose to press, to do what is right, from his unfettered prospective. There are lots of people who could have been hung that day; but only one who was.
James Dobson talked about this very subject this morning. He said it so much better than I can. I'd encourage everyone to go to the Focus on the Family website & listen to his thoughts.
Hi Serenity and All! I love theological discussions and I love the Word of God so I am excited to post and discuss! Sorry that I am so late in entering - I am just starting to read your page today and I have a lot of catching up to do.
The Bible says that the only reason that any of us is in right standing with God is the blood of Jesus that washes away our sin.
Isaiah 64:6 all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Absolutely nothing that we do or suffer makes us even one iota closer to God. The blood of Jesus has brought us as close as we will ever be.
Hebrews 9:11-14 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
God has graciously promised us that...
Romans 8:28 all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose
2 Corinthians 12:9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
We are also promised suffering in this world as christians...
John 16:33 "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
The Apostle Paul was a faithful servant of the Lord and he suffered greatly...
2 Corinthians 11:24-27 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
Paul suffered while he was doing the will of God - spreading the gospel to the gentiles.
And from prison Paul writes...
Philippians 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
and...
Philippians 4:11-13 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Very rarely do you see that last verse quoted with the context of the chapter - Paul is not saying that "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" as a self help motivating and positive thinking type of strength. He is saying that he can live in prosperity or SUFFER because God is giving him strength. There is the biblical grounds for what I think ts was saying.
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