I was taking an Alpha course at an evangelical free church in Minneapolis, and there was a discussion. Most of the members insisted that God is in control of every aspect of their lives.
Excuse me, but if God is in control, then please explain the world to me. I don't believe God is in control unless we put him in control. And my problem is that I don't think I really have him in control of things. I long to truly see His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I have seen too much of Satan's will being done, not only in my life but in the life of other, genuine believers.
The thing is that if you truly know God, there is nothing about him that you will not like. And because of that you will want nothing but his will to be done. He desires for you what you desire for yourself.
When I have been the most passionate in desire for God, then I have been under the worst attack and have had the worst things happen to me. I have so many examples of those who have been on the mission field and they have been afflicted with a disease and have had to return home and discontinue their service to God. I have a dear friend from my teen years who I have gotten in touch with again, finding out she is now a mature believer who is very in love with Jesus, just in time to find out she is supposed to die soon.
There was the great evangelist Smith Wigglesworth who saw great miracles: people raised from the dead, limbs restored, among others, and I had the privilege of knowing a Smith Wigglesworth of the late 20th century who died in his late 80s. He had amazing miracles in his ministry as well. Ministers such as these obviously have some special connection to God that enables them to have this power and these miracles, but it should not belong exclusively to a few people, but to all believers.
Yet, sadly, so many believers live under so much oppression and defeat. God is not in control in their lives. Christians labor under the idea that God has sent all these bad things to teach a lesson, so that they won't even begin to part with them based on knowing that a loving God has not placed these things upon them. They have a relationship with the devil, not God. They call God the devil.
When will we ever see an end to the works of the devil? Jesus said he came to destroy those works. We can't see an end to them if we accept them as from God.
7 comments:
How many blogs? Just one more... ha ha
You make a great point here Gab. I really believe that God is in control of everything in this world, but how he is, I cannot understand it. I like how you said that many people believe that God has sent all these bad things to teach a lesson. That is so true that many people see God as some great chess-player that is calculating moves against us to bring judgement and teach us a lesson. I know that He has taught me many lessons, but God is not a God set out to harm us. Did He allow Job to be harmed, sure. But, the Enemy was doing the harming there.
Thanks for this post. It got me thinking this morning!
Thanks for visiting, Donny
I feel your frustration. Coincidentally, I just wrote a post on this, entitled, Why?
I believe we must remember that God is in control, but He chooses a limited control in order to allow for our freedom of choice.
Take care, sister.
David
Gabrielle,
You have posed a very deep question- one worth pondering.
There is NO man alive who has a complete understanding of why God does what He does or allows what He allows.
I do not think our minds are able to comprehend the weight of our situation in this world. I doubt we could handle it if we did.
God in His mercy allows some mysteries to remain until the time of His coming- then all things will be made clear...
Thanks you guys, I just wrote my part 2 before noticing your comments.
David, you're right that God has limited his control because He has allowed freedom of choice. But since we have made wrong choices that have put God out of control of certain things, it seems that it will take certain right choices to put God back in control of those things, correct? We pray, "thy will be done" when things have gotten out of His will, right?
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