Believing In God

Trials should not surprise us, or cause us to doubt God's faithfulness. Rather, we should actually be glad for them. God sends trials to strengthen our trust in him so that our faith will not fail. Our trials keep us trusting; they burn away our self confidence and drive us to our Saviour.  Edmund Clowney

My husband was reading the paper this weekend and he read an article that he wanted me to read.  It was a very short commentary that you would have missed if you weren’t paying attention. 

There was a gentleman who stated that he was raised to believe in God but after seeing all the tragedies, wars and inhuman things that happen he doesn’t believe in God anymore. 

This was the start of a conversation for us.  We discussed how we couldn’t understand thinking that way about God.  The sad reality is God is not at fault here in the world we live in.  The problem with some of the thinking in today’s society is that many people don’t understand the concept of living in a fallen world.  It is true that we weren’t the ones in the Garden of Eden who ate the apple.  But we are the descendants of Adam and Eve.  We suffer the consequences of living in this fallen world. 

There are consequences for behavior whether it is good behavior or bad.  Too many times we don’t want the consequences from our sinful behavior.  If God didn’t love us he wouldn’t have destroyed the earth by flood, yet he saved Noah and his family. God wouldn’t keep trying to draw us back to Him if he didn’t love us sin and all.  God also would not have created a plan for our redemption.  When Christ died on the cross He gave up His life for us so we could be redeemed.  Our return to the Father is a choice and each of us has the opportunity to choose a life in heaven or a life in hell. 

God didn’t create us to be puppets.  If we consider it from the point of view that God wants us to come to Him of our own free will and that unless we do that we will not truly love Him for who He is, it takes on a different perspective.  The kind of love God wants from us will not come if we are forced into it.  The kind of love God describes in the Bible is a love that through hardship will become stronger on the other side of war, disease and the inhuman things people do to each other.  If our road is paved with no sorrow, pain or loss, how can we possibly love God to the extent that we love Him above anything here on earth? 

Wisdom doesn’t come from the smooth highway.  It comes from being off the beaten path.  It’s the bumps and dips and valleys that will teach us who God is and why He allows us to go through the trials of everyday life.  

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I was saddened to read the article about the gentleman who had given up on You.  I prayed for him because he doesn’t understand the true meaning of loving You.  You don’t allow me to go through the tragedies of life so that I will be beaten down.  If I understand that each trial is an opportunity for me to grow closer to You, then I have learned the important lesson of loving You, My Heavenly Father.  Thank You for the trials because I would not know You the way I do without them.

Scripture:  My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work,

that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.  James 1:2-8

Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.  But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.  Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.   James 1:12-18