As I was reflecting on Psalm 10 today, I think God showed me an attitude that I have toward Him--and it's not a good one. In vv. 11–14, the psalmist writes:
"He [the wicked man] says to himself, 'God has forgotten;
he covers his face and never sees.'
Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God.
Do not forget the helpless.
Why does the wicked man revile God?
Why does he say to himself, 'He won't call me to account'?
But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it and take it in hand.
The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless." (NIV)
Although I don't often think of the evil things that I have done and say, "God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees," I do think that about the troubles that I go through. Somewhere along the line in reflecting on the problem of evil, I concluded that in this fallen world, evil is very real and very powerful. It is an enemy of God. I think subconsciously I have started to think that God is powerless to prevent evil. I don't believe that in my head, but I think I believe it in my heart.
I don't have a hard life by any means. But I think somewhere along the line I lost the belief that God truly was looking out for me and that He would be my "helper." When I face adversity, I don't expect Him to deliver me.
This is tragic.
And I think it accounts for a lot of the anger in my life.
"Father, I don't know how to balance belief in an all-loving, all-powerful, all-knowing God with the reality of evil in the world. I confess that Jesus has called us to a life of suffering, and "by many tribulations" we enter the kingdom of God. But I think somewhere along the line I grew angry at You. I don't want to be angry. Even the thought of being angry at God kind of terrifies me. God, I confess that You have my best interests at heart; I pray that You would help me to believe it. Amen."
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2 comments:
Hi Matt,
Good stuff! Thanks for your honesty. I often dwell on think about these "issues" as well. I actually cut out a newspaper article from the Sacramento Bee this week dealing with human tragedy. It told a story of a double murder of a high school boyfriend and girlfriend. The girlfriend’s jealous ex boyfriend killed both kids. They were on their way to their senior ball.
To make matters worse, the murdered boyfriend’s brother received the news and took off for home from UC Berkley. Just before arriving to his home, he was in a terrible crash and is in critical condition. These boys mother received all of this terrible news on of all days …Mothers Day…
How do you make sense of this type of event? There are no “easy” (or hard) answers. We just need to hang onto God and know that he cares for us greatly. I really like what I just read from Rick Warren interview… here is part of his response to the interviewer. “People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense”.
See you Sunday..
Bro John
Wow. What a story. I will reiterate--I've had a pretty easy life.
I thought you were camping on the beach this weekend. You get Wi-Fi all the way out there?
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