When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.
A.W. Tozer
So... Apparently Tozer believed:
God "giving you cancer" makes you more Christlike? How?
God "allowing you to be raped" makes you more Christlike? How?
God "causing (or allowing) your daughter to be killed in a car wreck" makes you to be more Christlike? How?
People need to stop blaming, or assigning ultimate responsibility to, God for things the devil does.
John 10:
10) The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy...
Luke 4:
5) And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6) And the devil said unto him,
All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
Acts 10:
38) How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were
oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
Heb 2: (ESV)
14) Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy
the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
1 Pet 5:
8) Be sober, be vigilant; because
your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1 John 5: (NIV)
19) We know that we are children of God, and that
the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
I will never understand why anyone decides to adopt the Calvinist understanding of "the Sovereignty of God": "Everything that happens is God's will".
I know that many on this forum are dyed in the wool Calvinists, but I hope SOMEONE can think things through a little bit...
God loves us!
I'm fully aware that God chastens those He loves, but those things above are not chastening. They are acts of the devil, our enemy.