A devout and godly Christian that dies from cancer at an early age...
An earthquake that kills thousands and thousands of people in Japan...
A group of terrorists that kill thousands of innocent people on 9/11...
A God that allows people to suffer, some for eternity in an awful Hell...
A God that sacrifices his own perfect Son for a group of people who defy Him...
What do these have in common?
These situations are all related in that they often go against our basic sense of reasoning and our view of who God is. Ask any non-Christian why they don't believe in the existence of Christ, and they will likely name one of these events, or others like it. Even if Christ did exist, they still don't see how he could possibly have their best interests at stake.
The sobering thing is though, not only "unbelievers" think this way. So do Christians! I would be lying if I claimed a never-wavering faith in every single thing God does or has done, whether in my life, in history, or in Scripture. If you are like me, the question "If God is good, why do these things happen?" is sometimes never fully satisfied.
We try to answer it cleverly by saying "Well, it's obviously because of sin's presence in the world." True, but why did God allow sin in the world? If He hates Sin and He hates suffering, why does he allow it?
Well, because He's God, and He does what He wills.
Sadly, this answer isn't quite as satisfying as we'd hoped it would be. It sounds to many like the principal Christian cop-out. "Just because, He's God." But it's true, He is God, and He does do things that don't make sense to us. But instead of gaining a sense of security, the only thing this statement does is cause us to bite our lip.
Why doesn't this give us a sense of joy and security?
Because despite the fact that God is sovereign, bad things still happen!
We aren't letting go of our own human reasoning. We want God to line His reasoning up with ours, but He's God, and He doesn't, and it's not fair. We wouldn't say this of course, but I know I feel it often. Again, all we do is bite our lip and sigh while saying "God, you know what you're doing."
What if we lined our reasoning up with His?
What if, while acknowledging we will never understand God's reasoning, we made it our own!?
What does this look like? It looks like accepting every circumstance with a genuine joy, because the God of the universe is in control! Instead of simply claiming "He will make things turn out in the end," we can claim "Things are just as they should be, and are that way for a glorious purpose!"
Does this take away grieving and sadness? By all means no. But in a statement that many would consider extreme (and I don't often state the extreme), I believe this takes away confusion, doubt, and anger in the hardest circumstances. But before you protest...
In this life, we will never be completely free from confusion
Just as we will still sin as God's children on earth, we will still doubt. But just as we are sanctified and sin is no longer our master, neither is doubt and confusion! Instead, the doubt of God's plan is not natural, but rather a human arrogance; a sense of entitlement to our own sense of reasoning.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:9
In Christ, every season is a season of joy and security.
Brian
Francis Chan on Arrogance (3:00 to 7:00ish)
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