Many of us look from afar at disasters, see people homeless or dead, communities, or sometimes, regions, demolished, and wonder “How could a loving God allow this?” Others, including many who are reading or hearing this sentence, have gone through overwhelmingly difficult, or even unimaginably devastating, experiences. It is natural to ask “Why would a loving God allow this to happen to me?”
Two points:
1) People in such pain are not often interested in glib “theoretical” discussions. Many of them (us) need someone to give us a hug, emotional support, and often even provide material support. This discussion is not “exactly” targeted to them. People going through such difficulties need “God's love with skin on”, more than objective “theologizing” about their pain.
2) This discussion is more on the “theologizing” side, though it is written with the hope that (a) there may be some actual reframing of the pain to bring it into the context of Eternity, and, more specifically, (b) to respond to those who claim that such disasters “prove” either there is no God, or that He doesn't care enough about us to work in our lives.
The main point of response “b” is “If you haven't been inviting God to work in your life before the disaster, why would you expect Him to work where He isn't invited to work, or even rejected?”
One may question why would a loving God allow the hundreds of millions of evil deaths seen in the last hundred years. The simple superficial answer may be because the people making the decisions about the lives or deaths of others were not asking God to help them make God honoring decisions. And the majority of those suffering from such evil decisions were also not asking God to guide them and protect them. So why should God work in their lives when the people did not want Him to work in their lives?
“But what about all those who were seeking God's will in their lives and still had to go through such evil experiences?” There is an entirely different answer for them and it should be understood, if it is correct, by all Christians from early on in their relationship with Christ.
In short, when bad things happen, those who have not asked God to come into their lives and guide and protect them daily have no right to criticize God for not doing so.
But, those who have invited the living God into their lives through the death, burial, and resurrection of His one and only human born Son, Messiah Jesus, can be confident that even if God does not miraculously deliver them from a devastating situation, He is more than willing to walk with them through it.
They only need to keep drawing closer to God and keep inviting them into their lives moment by moment. This is why God allows His children to go through such difficulties – to give them opportunity to draw very close to Him all day long and see how glorious He is no matter what you are going through.
Even though it may feel like “hell on earth” as you are going through it now, in eternity, you will glorify God for trusting you with such an opportunity to grow in Him and love Him more and more right now in your life.
With that in mind, my advice is to grow in love for Jesus as much as you can right now, because in eternity, you will see that the goal of life on this earth is not to avoid difficult situations and/or enjoy God's bounty. It is to grow in our knowledge of, and love for, God's one and only human born Son, who died for us, and three days later, came back to life. We first love Him for that and start getting to know Him personally through that.
Thereafter, the most important thing to learn is to daily be growing in our love for Him, and reflecting His love to those around us.
Then, no matter how difficult, or pleasant, our lives, we accept that God is working in our lives to bring us closer to Him and to become more like His Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Messiah.
In summary, when difficulty, and even horror, happens, God is not responsible to those who have been rejecting His Son working in their lives. However, for those who have been seeking God's will in their lives, starting with salvation through Messiah Jesus alone, He will use the difficulties, tragedies, horrors and pain in our lives to give us opportunities to grow, and in eternity, we will worship Him all the more because we allowed Him to help us through the terrible situation. (Or, we may be “kicking ourselves” for being so stubborn and small minded that we refused to learn what God was trying to teach us over and over and over again.) Every experience, every moment, in our lives is an opportunity to learn what God wants to teach us, or reject His will for us and do whatever else we want.
Two points:
1) People in such pain are not often interested in glib “theoretical” discussions. Many of them (us) need someone to give us a hug, emotional support, and often even provide material support. This discussion is not “exactly” targeted to them. People going through such difficulties need “God's love with skin on”, more than objective “theologizing” about their pain.
2) This discussion is more on the “theologizing” side, though it is written with the hope that (a) there may be some actual reframing of the pain to bring it into the context of Eternity, and, more specifically, (b) to respond to those who claim that such disasters “prove” either there is no God, or that He doesn't care enough about us to work in our lives.
The main point of response “b” is “If you haven't been inviting God to work in your life before the disaster, why would you expect Him to work where He isn't invited to work, or even rejected?”
One may question why would a loving God allow the hundreds of millions of evil deaths seen in the last hundred years. The simple superficial answer may be because the people making the decisions about the lives or deaths of others were not asking God to help them make God honoring decisions. And the majority of those suffering from such evil decisions were also not asking God to guide them and protect them. So why should God work in their lives when the people did not want Him to work in their lives?
“But what about all those who were seeking God's will in their lives and still had to go through such evil experiences?” There is an entirely different answer for them and it should be understood, if it is correct, by all Christians from early on in their relationship with Christ.
In short, when bad things happen, those who have not asked God to come into their lives and guide and protect them daily have no right to criticize God for not doing so.
But, those who have invited the living God into their lives through the death, burial, and resurrection of His one and only human born Son, Messiah Jesus, can be confident that even if God does not miraculously deliver them from a devastating situation, He is more than willing to walk with them through it.
They only need to keep drawing closer to God and keep inviting them into their lives moment by moment. This is why God allows His children to go through such difficulties – to give them opportunity to draw very close to Him all day long and see how glorious He is no matter what you are going through.
Even though it may feel like “hell on earth” as you are going through it now, in eternity, you will glorify God for trusting you with such an opportunity to grow in Him and love Him more and more right now in your life.
With that in mind, my advice is to grow in love for Jesus as much as you can right now, because in eternity, you will see that the goal of life on this earth is not to avoid difficult situations and/or enjoy God's bounty. It is to grow in our knowledge of, and love for, God's one and only human born Son, who died for us, and three days later, came back to life. We first love Him for that and start getting to know Him personally through that.
Thereafter, the most important thing to learn is to daily be growing in our love for Him, and reflecting His love to those around us.
Then, no matter how difficult, or pleasant, our lives, we accept that God is working in our lives to bring us closer to Him and to become more like His Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Messiah.
In summary, when difficulty, and even horror, happens, God is not responsible to those who have been rejecting His Son working in their lives. However, for those who have been seeking God's will in their lives, starting with salvation through Messiah Jesus alone, He will use the difficulties, tragedies, horrors and pain in our lives to give us opportunities to grow, and in eternity, we will worship Him all the more because we allowed Him to help us through the terrible situation. (Or, we may be “kicking ourselves” for being so stubborn and small minded that we refused to learn what God was trying to teach us over and over and over again.) Every experience, every moment, in our lives is an opportunity to learn what God wants to teach us, or reject His will for us and do whatever else we want.