To put it in the English I grew up with, “If’n I’da had my druthers, I’d never go through anything unpleasant.” My life would be a never ending journey from one joyous occasion to the next with nothing in between to cause any distress.
I would always write about good things and never have to write about anything bad; tell about having a flat tire, how sick I got or some other unpleasant thing that happened to me or others I know. Everything would go my way and everyone would always be happy and live happily ever after.
But guess what? We’re not in charge of our lives - God is - and sometimes (whether we want or will admit it or not) unpleasant things are allowed to come our way. We quickly quote Scriptures like Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Telling all, “Oh yeah! God’s in charge of everything.” Then deny the things that come to try our faith in that (and other like) verses of Scripture.
Truth? We pay far more attention to what our adversary says than our heavenly Father. We spend so much time trying to “prove” a loving God would never allow “bad” things to happen (a favorite tactic of our adversary) we often miss the point - God really IS in charge. How can we tell people who don’t know Jesus as savior that our God is all-powerful, able to do all things, then tell them God doesn’t allow testing of our faith by allowing what we call “bad things” to happen?
The enemy has us tied in knots because we are caught on the merry-go-round of “Well, if God is all-powerful, why does He allow bad things to happen?” But God doesn’t allow bad things to happen.
Bad things do happen, but how can they if God is all powerful? Satan sits back laughing at us because we are so busy fighting ourselves we don’t have time, energy OR faith to fight him and demonstrate by our trust and faith that we believe God really is in charge!
Tell me, do you learn to trust God? Is your faith built more when things are going your way with no problems, or by experiencing God bringing you through the valleys and times of crisis that come into your life where you have to really depend on Him because you can do nothing yourself to change the circumstance?
Instead of spending our time debating things (with our adversary or each other) that do nothing to strengthen us, we should work to achieve what Jude 1:3 says and “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Speaking of the faith that is spoken of in Hebrews chapter 11.
The same faith shown by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego spoken of in Daniel 3:16-18 who, when threatened with death “answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”
Who’s REALLY in charge in YOUR life - you or God? Do you REALLY believe and LIVE like your Father in heaven is in charge?
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Editor’s note: Charlie Newman is pastor of Avoca Christian Church. To contact him, e-mail [email protected], or write in care of The Times at [email protected] or P.O. Box 25, Pea Ridge, AR 72751.
Church, Pages 2 on 04/24/2013