In answering today’s question, it is important that we start by reaffirming this to those who need to hear it – God is Real. Read this very carefully, say it out loud to yourself and let the reality of that sit deep down within your spirit.
Yes, it is true. There is pain in the world and there is so much suffering, but none of this is orchestrated by God. We do not serve a God that is good and evil. God is good. In his infinite mercy, he created man to rule and reign over this earth. Out of His love and desire for a relationship, He gave to us the gift of freewill. To make choices for ourselves. This was the first test of man in the garden. God did not create the world with evil in it. We, humans, brought evil into the world.
God had created the garden so beautifully and had placed a tree in the garden which He did not want Adam nor Eve to eat from. This was an instruction given by God out of the love that He had for Adam and Eve, in hopes that they would choose to return this love by doing what he said, not because they had to but because they wanted to. God could have stopped Adam & Eve from eating the apple but then that would be Him taking the choice out of their hands. We see from scripture that this was the beginning of the fall of man. We made a decision in our freedom to act outside of God’s word. We still do the same today in our day to day lives.
The major difference between then and now is that we have the gift of salvation. We have the gift of Jesus who came to save us from ourselves. But yet again, it is left for us to choose whether or not we believe in Jesus. There seems to be a theme here with God. What do we know about Him? He is good, He loves us, and He wants us to choose right. In some way, this gift of freewill has often led to evil orchestrated by man. A lot of the pain that we see in the world today is a result of the actions of men and the ripple effects of these actions across the world and generations to come.
But then if God is not the orchestrator of this suffering, where is He in all of this? Well, He’s right in the middle of it, waiting once again, for us to choose to call out to Him. Because even in our brokenness, He desires that relationship with us. In Matthew 28 vs 20, Jesus promises to be with us regardless of the circumstances or situations we find ourselves in. In John 16:33, Jesus assures us that despite the troubles and tribulations in the world, we will always have perfect peace in Him because He too was made flesh like us and He overcame the suffering of this world. We find peace in Christ because he came down and lived amongst us in flesh. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that we do not serve a God that is unable to sympathize and understand our weaknesses and temptations, but one who has been tempted in every aspect as we are. This is where our rest comes from because if he’s been through every suffering that we could ever go through and he overcame them, then we can stand confident in the truth that our victory is secure.
In summary, God has given us freewill based on love. However, this freewill can lead to evil because of the wickedness of man. So as long as humans exist, evil will always be a part of this world but this does not mean that God justifies it. God gave us freewill and the instruction to dominate the earth. In our exercise of this freewill, we ought to learn to walk on a straight path and in accordance with the will of God. We also need to remember that even in our pain or suffering, God is there and we can always choose to turn to Him in our pain. For in Him, we will find peace and comfort.
We are not promised a life without suffering but we have been given a gift, one who has already overcome every suffering that we will ever go through. So this is where our rest needs to come from, trusting that the one who oversees our lives is more than able to carry and comfort us through any pain or suffering that we face.
Till next time,
Remember that we serve a God that is acquainted with our grief