Abba, Father, I …

You probably have asked this question before. Its an age old dilemma ( of sorts ).

Now, i will tell you this straight away: i do not know even 1 Googolth of 1 percent why God does what he does. I will also tell you that i do not know how a non Christian copes when tragedy and calamity strikes him/her.

But i can tell you how a Christian ought to respond in times of tragedy and great difficulties. I will start off by stating outright that the above question , as stated, is authored by the enemy and you, my dear, should never frame it in that way. Instead, if you need to ask a similar question, ask the following:

Since the Lord is so good, what should i learn from this?

First, we know that the Lord God is lord over all. Secondly, we know that the Lord God has given humans immense freedom and free will. Third, we know that there is an evil being, who is a prince with great authority on this earth. His name is “the enemy” or Satan, and he hates human beings with a passion, especially those who are followers of the Lord God and who give allegiance to the lamb.

Given that, you immediately see that there are three possible causes of events in your life: Yourself, The Lord, and the evil one.

You and yourself

Let’s begin with yourself. You have power to do as you wish ( probably 99% of the time ). You make choices in life. These choices have consequences. Some consequences are good, some are bad, and some are real bad.

For example, any day, any time, you can pick a revolver and go shoot your neighbor dead. OK, maybe that is a bit too strong. Lets try it again. Any day, you choose to hate Mr. Q. ( Hate, by the way, as far as God is concerned, is equivalent to murder. Wow! See how warped our justice system is? There are murderers walking among us, free, and who shudder at the crimes of those other “murderers” who have been caught. These free murderers may even sit in a jury that condemns the other “murderers” to death! ).

Does the Lord want you to hate anyone? No. Will he stop you from hating Mr. Q? No, he has given you free will to do as you wish. He will not trample on your free will ( a fact that i hope you appreciate ). Would the devil want you to hate Mr. Q? Oh, yeah. He is the author of hate. He would not only move you to hate, but will also urge you along, even suggesting other sinister methods you could use to fix Mr. Q. Does he force you to hate Mr. Q? No. The Lord has placed certain boundaries on him on what he can or cannot make human beings do.

Physicians tell us that hate destroys the hater more than the “hatee”. Health-wise. Emotionally. Psychologically. Socially. There are people whose physical health is deteriorating because they nurse so much hatred, bitterness, un-forgiveness. There are people who have anger problems because they hate other people or because of what their parent did to them. If you are one such person, when your health has failed, you may cry “Why did God let this happen to me?”. In reality, God did not do anything to you. You did it to yourself. On the other hand, if only you would listen to the Lord, He is willing and will get you out of whatever situation you maybe in.

The Evil One

How about the devil? How true is the common mantra “the devil made me do it?“. Does he make anyone do anything? No, you can never catch him on that (unless you are totally given over to him ).

Consider this. Did he make Eve and Adam sin? No. He just offered them an alternative lifestyle from what the Lord had offered them. They made the critical choice. Did the devil put pressure on them? He certainly did, but, just like Cain was told (Gen. 4: 6-7), as a child of God, you can ALWAYS resist the devil’s pressures:

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”

Of course, the devil is a prince of this world. There are things that he can cause to happen, such as calamities (see the familiar story of Job, etc). But, as the Job story illustrates, whatever the devil can cause to happen to humans, is bounded. He is a prince, not the King. There is one who is a good King. A prince takes his orders from the King.

Now, if you happen to operate within the prince’s boundary, if you put yourself under the authority and leadership of the prince, he has power over you, and he can cause you harm, if he so desires. If you are so placed, and refuse to be under the authority of the King instead, and the prince of darkness causes you harm, why turn again and cry “God, why did you let this happen to me?” You should instead be saying, “Lord, I have been in the devil’s path, help me out of here!”

The good Lord

Finally, let us consider how our good heavenly Father relates with his children. Foremost, He is totally GOOD. He loves you greatly. His love can never run out. His goodness can never stop. We can walk away from Him, but He can never walk away from us. But, just like our earthly fathers, he does, on many occasions, allow hardships and difficulties to come our way.

Here are three reasons why the Lord would take you through difficulties:

1. For growth and character building:

No character is ever developed without hardships and trials. The Lord could have made it otherwise, but this is the path that the He has chosen for those whom he loves to walk in. Two examples:

• Job: The very well known story of Job illustrates this. Job had done absolutely nothing, yet tragedy hit him. The devil did the dirty job (with the Lord’s allowance, of course ). What does Job conclude?
  • “But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” Job 23:10
• Paul: Paul talks about the “thorn in the flesh” that the Lord brought his way ” to straighten him up”.
  • And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. (II Cor 2:7 )

2 Punishment leads to goodness:

Like little children, we are bound to stray. A good and caring father intervenes and institutes corrective measures to bring the child back. A father who does not care will not lift a finger to correct his child. There is no better illustration of this teaching than God dealing with the children of Israel; Israel goes astray, God punishes them, they come back in line, they go astray again, get punished, and so on. The writer of Hebrews 12: 6 could not have said it better (NLT version) :

For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.

What format does this punishment take?. Hear what the Lord promises Israel, his chosen beloved people (Leviticus 26:3-6 )

‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, 4 then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. 6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid; will rid the land of evil beasts, and the sword will not go through your land.

And then in Levitus 26:14-19, the warning of punishment:

14 ‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, 15 and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, 16 I also will do this to you: will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you. 18 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 I will break the pride of your power; will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.

Search the scriptures, this theme is repeated throughout the old testament.

So, next time, before you go “if God is good, why does he let Children die in Ethiopia?“, think about the above promise and the corresponding warning.

Or before you go “if God is good, why did he let the Rwanda genocide happen?“, do remember that he has given Félicien Kabuga and his fellow killers free will ( just as much as he has given it to you), and they can choose to work with the prince of this world to use that power to kill other people.

Let me add this with much sorrow. Hear what the Lord says. He says punishment goes with love. Is it not a tragedy, that we of the 21st century, teach otherwise? We say that punishing a child is bad and shows our lack of love. We think we are so advanced with our 100+ years of experimenting. We think we are more loving and know more about child development and human nature than the ancient of days does. Despite the failure of these “civilized methods” we have employed, the society is so blind it can not see it’s folly. We fail to teach a child to be good when they are young, yet when they turn 18, we somehow expect them to know to do good, and when they fail ( as would be expected ), we punish them severely by throwing them in jail.

3 For God’s glory

Finally, The Lord allows us to go through difficulties for his glory. How can that be, you may ask. Two examples:

• The man born blind in John 9:1-7. Jesus say this man’s condition of blindness existed solely that, by Him (Jesus) healing him (the man), God would receive Glory.

  • And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Master, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

• The persecution and Death of Christ’s apostles also illustrates this point. John 21: 19-22 records the manner in which Jesus planned that Peter would die (by hanging on the cross) :
  • This spoke He, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said unto him, “Follow Me.” 20Then Peter, turning about, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at supper, and said, “Lord, who is he that betrayeth Thee?”21Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “Lord, and what shall this man do?” 22Jesus said unto him, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me.”

I know what some of you 21st century believers might be thinking. “How cruel of God?”. Yeah, maybe. But He is the Lord. Is he not free to do with his saints whatsoever he wills? Is he not the potter, and you the clay? Can the clay say to the potter, “why..?”.

So, my brethren, these adverse events, are meant to build, not destroy, you. These are learning events. These events are a proof of your heavenly father’s love and goodwill towards you. A voice that tells you otherwise is from the enemy of your soul. Therefore, you should always say:

Lord, what am i to learn from this?