God Can Not Act …

… in only one area.

It is by His choice.

I’m sure it breaks His heart, many times, but … He is.

Free will.

He gives US final say.  He gives us us the final choice.  

He gives us complete choice and if we choose sin.  There’s very little He can do.  

“But He’s God!?!?”

I can hear indignation rising in your thoughts from here.

lol

Yes.  He is. But He loved us enough to give us free will to make the choices in our lives.

He loves us enough to want us to love Him freely.  

I once saw an episode of a crime show on TV where someone was kidnapped and kept in a basement and forced to play the part of spouse to the kidnapper.

It was evil, it was scary, and thankfully they were rescued in the end. 

What does that have to do with our relationship with God? Well, if he didn’t give us a choice whether to love him, or not, how would that be any different?  

God does not want prisoners. God does not want robots. He wants a family. If there is no choice, there is no true relationship. No family. No love.

“He’s totally in control though.” 

Is He? 

Is He totally in control of your life?   Do you do every single thing He wants you to do? Does He ignore your free will and force you to obey in your life?

No. Of course not. That would violate not only the word of God, but the law of God, and make Him a lawbreaker. He has not done that. He never will do that. He cannot do that! 

This fallen world and all of the evil that surrounds us is a perfect illustration of exactly what I’m saying. Man does not always follow God’s plan. 

Man has a choice and Man often doesn’t make the right one. 

“But he’s God! I saw something terrible bring people to Jesus once.  He allowed that terrible thing because He knew it would be good in the end ”

No.

Yes. He is God. He is powerful, and He has such phenomenal love for His children. There really aren’t words to describe it. Yes, He can do much in our lives and in our world to turn bad choices around. He can, often, step back, and let our bad choices bring us to a place of desperation where we make the right choice. I like to put it like this, “He’s smart enough to outsmart the devil.”

But that’s not the way He wants to handle it.  

That’s not His choice, watching us stumble and fall. Watching us live through pain and suffering is not His first choice with His children, but it is often the one we choose.

I think most tragic of all is when God actually gets the blame for horrible and painful events in someone’s life.

Even Christians, even devout, men and women of God, don’t make obedient choices all the time. So much of a truly healthy Christian life is taking a spiritual pause, reflecting on our choices, feelings, and beliefs, and then submitting them to God for correction. I really don’t know too many people that do that. We plow ahead as if somehow we have it all figured out then, when the world comes crashing down around us we shake our finger at God and say horrible things. As if somehow, He is evil and bent on cruelty.  We blame him unmercifully.

“Well, I knew ‘so and so’. He/She was such a fine Christian, and they got sick and died. That was all God’s fault.”

If you’re making a list of people to blame and you put God’s name on your list. You need to go ahead and cross it off right now!   The creator of the universe did not fail, anyone about anything on any day.

“He could’ve stopped it.  He chose not to heal them.”

Really?

The Bible says that, “God is not willing that any should perish…” 2 Peter 3:9. Do people perish? Do people go to hell every day? Yes. Tragically they do. So, obviously, God’s will is not always done in everyone’s life.   

In addition to the fact that Jesus came that we might have life more abundantly, John 10:10 and He healed them all that came to him in faith Luke 4:40.

There were also instances where He could not heal, or do any mighty works, because of unbelief Matthew 13:58.

“I know my loved one had great faith.“ 

No. You don’t. 

You know the life they lead. You know the words they said. Even if you knew everything about them…  You don’t know, in the deepest recesses of their heart, if they had conquered unbelief completely. 

Faith and unbelief are two separate entities. You can have great faith and great unbelief at the same time.  God’s Word admonishes us over and over to search our own heart  Psalm 139:23-24.  This is one reason why.

“I just will not believe they did not have enough faith to get healed.” 

Maybe not. 

Maybe that principal doesn’t apply to them at all. Maybe instead they had an issue in their life where they gave Satan access to them.   The Bible tells us that Satan is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour 1 Peter 5:8.

May. 

So, there are situations where Satan can. “devour”. 

“Christians are always  protected from the devil.”

Yes, they are. As long as they walk in obedience. As long as they do not open a door for satan to come in. 

“They were such a good Christian. I know they didn’t do anything wrong. “

No, again, you don’t. 

You cannot look into their heart. You cannot see where their thoughts wandered when they were alone.  What they do when they are alone. You cannot see every single act and thought of their life. “The enemy seeks” … he is going to tempt us all. With the rise of internet access and mobile phones areas satan can tempt us have multiplied. None of us resist temptation 100%.  

There are unique penalties for certain sins. Adultery will open up the doorway for the death of a child for instance. The biblical reference is David and Bathsheba’s oldest son’s death. 2 Samuel 12.

Witchcraft will open up a doorway for rebellion. Which ultimately can lead to death, because the word of God tells us that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft 1 Samuel 15:23 and “…do not suffer a witch to live.” Exodus 22:18.  

The word of God also has many things to say about leading children into sin, or harming them. One verse actually states, “it would be better if a millstone was tied around your neck, and you were thrown into the sea.“ Luke 17>2  If you have encouraged your children in sin, the enemy can gain access to you based on that principle alone. 

“They would never do that.”

No. Not knowingly . Of course they wouldn’t.  But when we compromise with the enemy, we do exactly that.

Did you let your teenage daughter watch the twilight trilogy? Did you watch it? Did you let your children read the Harry Potter series and laugh about how cute it was? Those are just too, very popular, examples. There are so many examples.  I could fill this page and more. 

But if it violates the Word of God, and you allowed it in your home, you did indeed open a doorway and give satan access to you and everyone in your “home”. Which means under your authority.

Is the person in authority is the one continually opening access for the enemy God will often allow them to be removed so that He can facilitate protecting “the Home” from continued demonic intrusion.

“That’s such legalism!  God is not a legalist!”

Definitely! 

Absolutely, He is not a legalist, but Satan is. 

If satan can use the Word of God to his advantage, he is going to do it! 

If you are hindering satan's evil in any way, and he finds an open door to you, he’s going to rush through it. 

“But God can forgive anything.”

Yes, He will. If we ask for forgiveness. Often, when we compromise, we don’t see anything wrong with it. That’s “pretty much“ the definition of compromise. That’s why we need to seek our heart regularly.  

So many people are walking away from churches, the Word of God, and their faith in general because tragedy happened in their life

They blame God when, in all likelihood, they are the reason to blame, if blame must be placed. They push away the one force in the universe that can heal and help them. The one force in the universe that tried desperately to stop the tragedy. The one force in the universe that gave His son to be horribly, tortured and murdered for healing , wholeness and a life free of tragedy.  

And most tragic of all. When they reject God, they unwittingly turn straight into the “arms” of Satan. They fall right into the trap he lays for them.  They become the second victim in their own tragedy.

“I’m just not buying it. My loved one was so awesome.” 

If you have God on one side of the scale and your loved one on the other, and you have decided, God is the evil one, or the one at fault, you’ve made a god out of your loved one. And if they truly live/loved God you dishonor their memory and their legacy by doing so.

We have to be very careful to present a gospel to the young people watching us that they want. If you paint, God as cruel and evil, they will reject him, quite possibly for all eternity.

“But how do I get past this?“

Thank Him.

Thank God, they are in heaven, and if you’ve given your life to Jesus, they are in your future. Even if you’re not completely sure, they are in heaven, we have to believe (even if it was the last milliseconds of their life) that God got through to them and they repented.

Repent

Ask God to forgive you for believing lies about your loving, heavenly Father, and speaking against Him (even if it was just in your heart). 

Ask Holy Spirit to lead and guide you in all things, and be your comforter, as the Word of God promises us He will be. (if we ask him too). As with everything else in the kingdom of God, it’s based on your invitation. He will not intrude on your heart uninvited. 

Forgive. 

If you have reflected back on the life of your loved one, and see, there were certain things that they definitely compromised on and it opened the door to the enemy. Forgive them. Especially if they paid for that disobedience with their life, forgive them. Transferring your anger from God to them will not help you with your grief.

Restore, if you have spoken cruelly against God to anyone, especially a young person, you need to go to them and correct your words. You need to pray with them for God to remove those seeds planted in their heart against Him.

Your God loves you. 

He would never, ever do anything to hurt you or anyone you love. 

He literally gave up the most precious thing He had to keep that from happening. Obedience and faith are required, however, to accomplish it in this life. 

Getting stuck in grief is very similar to lots wife turning back and looking at Sodom and Gomorrah. It will destroy you. God is always looking forward. God is always telling us to, “remember not the former things“. Because His purpose is always to build us a beautiful life. Getting stuck in the past, in our pain, in our mistakes, and our anger will not build a beautiful life.

Most of all, it keeps our heart from being free. The very thing Jesus died to give us. 

One final thought, that I hesitated to bring up, is unrepented sin. 

Many people hit tragic and horrific circumstances that deeply affect people them or those they love. Sometimes our loved ones are even in danger, or killed, due to evil and cruel behavior of others. If we allow murder in our heart, even if it seems justified, it will open the doorway for the enemy. 

“But the Bible says an eye for an eye.”

First of all, that’s not what that means. That was actually telling the Hebrew children you can only demand justice based on the exact parameters of the original act. Meaning, if someone accidentally put your eye out, you can’t go kill their whole family. Leviticus 24.

Those were biblical laws to keep society in order. There is, of course, still truth in the principals but, Jesus gave us a “ new, and better covenant”.   He actually tells us if we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven, and we will be turned over to tormentors.  Matthew 5:38

We don’t get a pass, because of how evil the person was or how righteous and right we are. 

If you bear murder in your heart against someone, you are opening the door for the enemy to take your life.  Matthew 5:21 

We like to make the things of God so simple. So many of them are. Salvation is very simple. But humanity, the Word of God none of that is simple.

The Word of God tells us that we perish for lack of knowledge. It is our responsibility to seek God, learn His Word and close the doors to the enemy.  Hosea 4:6