In the Christian life, we often hear things like “all things work out for the good”, “God will have his way”, “There’s a reason for everything” (Justin Bieber was quoted as saying this when interrogated on his views on abortion in the instance of rape – interesting tidbit for ya), and so on.  There’s verses for this, too – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28), and, “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).  So whenever things happen that we don’t understand, I guess we can safely just quote any of the above verses and move on then…right?

Well, for those of us who live in a hole and haven’t seen what’s happening in the great wide world, I’ve got news: some pretty bad stuff has happened.  Genocides, famines, HIV, cancer, nuclear disasters…There’s plenty more.

What Christians tend to do is try not to think of this type of thing too much, cuz it can really mess with the idea of God being good, can’t it?  It’s much easier to sweep it under the rug of “it’s God’s will” and hop off that train of thought while we still can.

Well, let’s stay on the train for once.   As we chug along, we find we start to question God.  Vice Verses, a song on Switchfoot’s latest album, laments “where is God in the hurricane?  Where is God in the genocide?”

If you dare to go on, you’ll find the train track divides.  At this point you’ve got two choices – believe that God is not all-powerful, or else He is just not all-loving.  What else is there?

Well, I have one suggestion.  What if God isn’t exactly in control the way we understand it?

I explained this idea more in-depth a year ago, check out “In the Beginning” for details.  But let me quickly brief you on what I mean.  God created everything, and it was good.  Then, He put us in charge of the earth (Genesis 1:26), giving us free will to do as we please.  And we messed it up.  Did God do it?  No.  Did He want us to do it?  I don’t think so.  But because of the natural laws of the earth, messing the earth up with sin has taken its toll.  So who is responsible for earth being messed up?  Us!

God wants us to live happy – if He didn’t, He wouldn’t have started us out in a paradise.  But above all, He wants us to have the freedom to choose whether to serve Him on earth or not.  THAT is His will.  So you see, the issues I’ve brought up don’t so much involve His will as much as OUR will.

I mean, if everything that happens is just the way God likes it, why did Jesus tell us to pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”?  Why do we pray at all?  Why are millions perishing around the world while 2 Peter 3:9 says “[God is] not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance”?

We are the hands and feet of Christ – He moves through us.  John Wesley went as far as to say, “God does nothing except in response to believing prayer.”  Another famous guy (the name escapes me) said, “Don’t ask where God is in the world’s problems.  Ask where God’s people are.”

“Okay”, you say, “I get it – help people out.  But what about things that we can’t change?  Hurricanes, HIV, that kind of stuff?”

Well, according to Scriptures, Jesus said we’ve got authority over that stuff too.  Jesus never blessed a storm, and since all authority has been given to Him (Matthew 28:18, Luke 10:19), we go in His name and speak to things such as the weather, diseases, etc, and they must line up with God’s word.

Pretty straightforward…till we come to a rock that does not budge.  And this is the major issue I want to address in this article.

So this rock stays put.  We pray, we command, we fast and beg, we do everything we know to do.  And nothing happens.  Speaking from experience, recently three friends/acquaintances of mine died of cancer, one of whom I prayed for multiple times to be healed.  Many would say at this point, “I guess it must have just been God’s will.”

But was it?  Jesus healed all who came to him, and commanded us to do the same (John 14:12, Matthew 10:7-8).  He said if we had faith as small as a mustard seed, we could move a mountain (Matthew 17:20), and that Jesus would do whatever we ask in His name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father (John 14:13).

“So you’re saying if they don’t get healed, we didn’t have enough faith!”  I am NOT saying that.  ”So you’re saying that God doesn’t use tragedies for His purposes and to teach us things?  Not saying that either.  ”So you’re saying we’re never supposed to suffer on earth.”  I want to put a word out on this subject soon, but for now I will just say that’s ALSO not what I’m saying.  ”So you’re saying I could have done something more!”  No…not even saying that.  My heart goes out to all who fight for a loved one – I know the urgency one feels, and that they spare no expense in attempting to save them.  No way do I want to tarnish someone’s sacrifice.

Here’s what I am saying: I’ve seen too many people encounter tragedies and create theology from them that Jesus never taught in an attempt bring comfort, instead of admitting they simply don’t understand why things happened the way they did.  I’m saying that it’s ok to say “I don’t know”.

In fact, I believe it’s the best response, as we only know in part.  That and to draw near to the Father of all comfort to get the peace that goes beyond all understanding (Philippians 4:7).  It’s better than making God out to be a sadistic father who hurts and kills His children to teach them lessons (or whatever other theology you fancy).  The point of Christianity isn’t to explain everything in existence – only God can actually do that.  And we are simply supposed to know Him.  A relationship is based on communication and and trust, not facts and knowledge.

I pray I would not be misunderstood here.  A conclusion that doesn’t explain tragedies isn’t the most satisfying, I know.  But I felt I had to put something out there to warn people not to attribute all problems they encounter to “the will of God”.  We are in a war.  We do have an enemy, and though we have authority through Jesus we don’t yet know everything about our enemy.  Let’s not make Job’s mistake of attributing his disasters to God (Job 1:21) – recall that although God did allow it, it was the devil who actually brought the tragedies to Job’s house (this could warrant a whole study itself, which I have not yet concluded myself).

So let’s understand the Father’s true heart to give life to the full – that’s what He wants to do, but He has willed to give us the earth – and now we’ve got to fight for it.   I want to encourage us to press in to what God does want to do.  Heidi Baker shares that she prayed for 200 blind people before she saw a single blind eye open – and since then she has seen much more success.  Draw your own conclusions, but I say we all could use some of her tenacity.  Rees Howells found that the Holy Spirit wants to answer all our prayers, but only wants us to pray the prayers He gives us.  So if we do not know God’s will in a situation, we must go to Him and ask, and when we get a response, pray until we have confidence that it will happen.

I love you all, and especially for those who are grappling with tragedies – this article was for you, so that you would be strengthened in your faith and keep marchin’ on.  If you have questions, Revival or Riots wrote a simpler article dealing more specifically with healing and the sovereignty of God here, which may help as well.  Bless ya all tons.

Dec 17 2011 in Articles admin 2 Comments »