Here’s the Thing!
“We learn by prayer to detect the difference between God’s order and God’s permissive will. God’s order is–no pain, no sickness, no devil, no war, no sin: His permissive will is all these things, the ’soup’ we are in just now. What a man needs to do is to get hold of God’s order in the kingdom on the inside, and then he will see how to handle the riddle of the universe on the outside.” Oswald Chambers
Has anyone ever asked you how a loving God can permit bad things to happen to good people? The above quote helps me understand the answer to that question much better. See, God loves us enough to give us free choice. Seriously, is it really love if God creates us to love Him and then doesn’t give us a choice as to whether to accept that love? That sounds more like a robot or to be more crass, a love slave. I, personally, love that God gives us the choice to accept Him or to reject Him. I wouldn’t have done it that way if I were God so you can all be thankful that I’m not.
So what does that have to do with bad things happening to good people you ask? Well, here’s the thing, as my favorite character, Monk, would say. God allows free choice and in free choice “WE” that is mankind, chooses evil. Not every day in every way but ultimately we have allowed Satan to have tremendous power over our lives and the lives of others which through generation after generation has allowed illness and sin to abound and in spite of science and technology I don’t really see it getting better. In fact, the Bible tells us clearly that, because of sin, things are going to get worse and worse until Jesus returns. So when a political leader or even a religious leader tells you that if we just follow him every thing will be fine, be suspicious, be very suspicious.
Any thoughts?