Wednesday, August 4, 2010

"One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts."

-- Psalm 145:4

Poor God. He's got all His children running around pointing fingers and fussing. Like most parents, He's quick to get blamed and not so quick to get the credit for good things.

Oh, I would never blame God, you say. Right. Try getting a cancer diagnosis. Try facing a job loss with no prospects in sight. Or how about a devastating car wreck involving a drunk driver? God could have prevented all those awful things from happening to you -- but He didn't. Given our human need to blame someone for bad things, God winds up in the bull's eye. Unfairly, I might add.

We live in a fallen world. I know. I sound like a broken record with that. But it's true. Other people make decisions -- like driving drunk -- that hurt us. God allows it. And He will use it for His glory. How about cancer? I don't know why people get sick. If I knew the answer to that, I would be really popular. But what I do know is that God uses bad things to draw us closer to Him. We can find strength and peace for our journey if we cling to Him, rather than push Him away.

Of course, lots of good things also happen in our world. The birth of a child, a job promotion, a new house. We don't tend to give God much credit for those things. Nope. We welcome a beautiful child because his mother ate well and got good medical care. We earn a promotion because we worked hard. We bought a new house because we managed our money well and worked our way up the real estate ladder.

Uh, excuse me. If God is responsible for the bad things in our lives, doesn't that mean He's also responsible for the good things? No need to get all bent out of shape. It was just a question. Since God is good, it only makes sense that He would bring good things our way. And since satan is bad, it only makes sense that he would send bad things our way.

God loves us. He created us and wants only good for us. One day all of us who believe, who have accepted Jesus' gift of salvation, will live in a new world free of tears and illnesses and sadness. Until then, we should embrace the wonderful gifts God gives us and cling to Him during times of trial and misfortune that crop up in this fallen world.