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| If you don't thank God after every smile why do you blame Him after every tear? |
Everyone is so quick to blame God when something goes wrong. Lost a job? That person is cursing God. A loved one dies? “Why would you do that God?” But then when everything is going good for them, they seem to forget who God is and don’t thank Him for what He’s done in them. We should go to Him on all occasions and rejoice at all times.
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your
gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Don not be anxious about anything,
but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
-Philippians 4:4-6
Some people say that God is evil because He allows evil. But He only allows evil because that is what men who don’t give themselves up to the Lord have in their hearts. They block God and the Holy Spirit from entering their hearts. Therefore, not all bad comes from God, nor Satan; it comes from the hearts of men (although we can blame Satan because they allow Him to control their thoughts and actions.) God allows the bad to happen as the punishment to mankind for not accepting Him.
“He whose walk is blameless is kept safe, but he whose ways
are perverse will suddenly fall.”
-Proverbs 28:18
If you look at the story of Noah and the ark, God did not cause the great flood for no reason. There was so much sin in the world and earthly desires in the hearts of men that He needed to bring the world back to order. In the story of Jonah and the big fish, Jonah did not end up in the world by God’s own decision. God had ordered Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and preach against its wickedness. But instead, he tried to run from God and boarded a ship. The sea grew rough and he knew that the only way to help save the other men was to sacrifice himself so he had them throw him into the water. God allowed the fish to swallow him so that he would not drown and perish in the ocean.
Jerusalem and Judah turned away from God; they became traitors. In return the Lord said that He will bring disaster and oppression to them because of their own wrongdoing (Isaiah 3:4-9). He will take both supply and support from them, the hero and the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the soothsayer and the elder, the captain and men of rank, the counselor, and the skilled craftsman (Isaiah 1-3). It wasn’t the Lord bringing unrighteous punishment. The Jews and the people of Judah brought it upon themselves by not allowing God’s will to be done and by not accepting Him as their god.
God also allows bad to happen to test us. In the book of Job, God allows Satan to take everything in Job’s possession and give him sores all over his body. He does this to prove that Job was a faithful servant of the Lord. Job’s wife told him to curse God but Job replied, “Shall we accept good from God, and not troubles?”(Job 2:10) Three of Job’s friends kept putting down God but Job did not so in return, Job was made prosperous again and give him twice the blessings.
“God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will
be with you to keep you from sinning.”
-Exodus 20:20
“…to humble you and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.”
-Deuteronomy 8:16
I notice this a lot. Good stuff happens it's either earned or good luck, bad stuff happens there must be no God or at least not a good and loving one. Sometimes I wonder too, if someone does something bad to you or you make a mistake which has consequences you don't like, that's because of free will and natural cause and effect; but what about accidents that are no one's fault? Well I guess that falls under Job test stuff. I like that graphic at the beginning although it's hard to read. ;-)
ReplyDeleteYes, there is free will too that can cause negative stuff, but because of their desires in their heart.
DeleteAnd thanks :) It says If you don't thank God after every smile then why do you blame Him after every tear?
This is a beautiful post!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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