Sometimes You Just Want To Scream!

God!

Why Are You Letting These Things Happen To Me!

Blaming God is something of a “pastime” for certain people.  To many, in fact, it seems right to blame God, given the state of the world and the state of many of our lives.  After all, we did not cause this mess so why should we have to suffer for it? If God were really all powerful, everywhere present, and knows everything, shouldn’t He simply put a stop to all the terrible things that are going on?

Many use such reasoning as a justification for blaming God. Indeed, many even hate God, judging that, if He is so loving, why does He allow us to experience so much pain?  It is true that many of us have endured horrific things in our lives and are victims of abuses we had no control over.  During those awful times, we even prayed to God daily hoping that He would come to our rescue, but when He never did, we thought He didn’t care and grew bitter.

That’s just not fair!

Add to that, the notion that if we do not accept Him and live according to His rules, that He will doom us to spend eternity in a lake of fire and it just makes a person want to scream, “that just isn’t fair!”  It is like we were born into a rigged system where we can’t win.

So goes the common thinking that leads to blaming God.  Of course many people couch it in different ways and say it more eloquently, but in general, that is the gist of the argument.

However…

Is God truly to blame for all the evils in the world and are we right to be angry at Him? Let’s take it down a notch in complexity and consider this hypothetical example,

Consider A Father and His teenage son.

Looking at his son teenage son who has just gotten his driving license, a Father says, “I am proud of you son,” then continues, “Johnny, I know you have studied and practiced hard to pass your test, but there is just one warning I want to give you; don’t drink and drive because if you do you might be get in a car wreck and be injured or even killed.”   “OK,” says his son, as Dad hands him the keys to his shiny new car.

Almost immediately, after he drives off, Johnny goes to his buddies house to show off his new car.  Jeff, his best friend since grade school, after duly admiring Johnny’s new ride, says, “Hey, let’s have a shot of whisky from my old man’s liqueur cabinet to celebrate.” The whisky looks good to Johnny and he believes it will make him look like a man in the eyes of his friend who is busy pouring him a shot glass full to the brim of Jack Daniels.  So “bottoms up” and Johnny drinks the whole shot glass in one big gulp and even though it “burns like hell” going down, Johnny says, “mmmm….that’s the good stuff.”

We don’t make the best choices on our own

Then Johnny’s friend suggests, “let’s drive over to Lisa’s house and show her your new car too!”  Johnny, feeling really cool answers, “yeah, why not, she’s hot.”  While driving to Lisa’s house the whiskey really starts to hit Johnny and, becoming loud and boisterous, talks and jokes with his friend as they drive along. Unfortunately, while not paying attention to the road, Johnny doesn’t notice the yellow light up ahead. As Johnny runs the red light he broadsides, at high speed, a van carrying a family on their way home from a baseball game.

Later, we see Johnny in traction, his friend’s still in the ICU with a head injury because he wasn’t buckled up, and view various injuries that the occupants of the van sustained ranging from broken bones to minor scraps and bruises.  Johnny’s Father, sick with worry, sits by his son’s bedside waiting for him to wake up.

Honestly, who is really to blame?

Who do we blame in this situation?  Should we blame Johnny’s Father? Johnny’s Father made sure he had a drivers license, a mechanically sound car to drive, and warned Him not to drink and drive.  Yes, Johnny’s Father could have never allowed him to drive and avoided the whole situation altogether.   However, there comes a time in every parents’s life where they must step back and allow their children to start making their own choices.

Tragically, Johnny’s poor choices not only affected him but also caused injury to others.  In fact, some of the people that suffered because of Johnny’s mistake had nothing to do with the bad choices he made. By not trusting His Father’s voice, terrible things happened, many of which, Johnny did not even realize could or would happen.  Now, for many years Johnny and others who were not a fault, will have to live with the consequences of his disobedience.

Let’s examine the facts

God, our Father, created a perfect world and planted a garden east of Eden. God created Adam from the dust of the Earth and then fashioned Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. Our Heavenly Father literally gave everything to His son and only made one rule: do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

Seems like a pretty good deal right?  Adam gets the whole world and everything in it, including Eve, and all he has to do is stay way from a single tree.  Being a perfect man, that commandment should not have been that difficult to follow.  Yet, as we all know, Eve listened to Lucifer and ate the forbidden fruit because it was “desired to make one wise” and then gave it to her new husband to taste too.  Things went downhill pretty fast from that point until it is written,

Are we really justified in blaming God?

For you who wish to blame God and find fault with Him, Do you really think that you are justified in doing so?  Is it really God’s fault? Would it not be better to realize that Adam and Eve, our ancestors, bare the responsibility for what has happened to the human race? Moreover, would it not be better to be angry at the one who actually tempted Eve in the first place, i.e. Lucifer?  After all, Lucifer, who now goes by the name of Satan, introduced his sin into the perfect world that God created for his son, Adam.

We have the ability to choose

God gave mankind free will.  Adam was given the ability to choose to obey his Father’s commandments or to reject and disobey his Father’s commandments.  However, with free will comes responsibility and with choices come consequences.  The thing about giving people free will is that once you give it, you can’t control everything they do.  All that happened is that the first Adam chose very unwisely.

Frankly, God’s original plan was never for any of this to happen. God’s will was for all of us to live forever and commune with Him in unbroken fellowship.  Disease, abuse, war, and even death was never part of God’s original intent. All the bad stuff that we see around us today has only happened because Adam, through his personal sin, sold all of mankind down the river by eating the forbidden fruit with his wife. Like Johnny, Adam did not listen to his Father’s warning but did exactly what His Father told him not to do and suffered the consequences. Furthermore, through his disobedience he hurt many others too.

We are in this mess because of bad choices

The fact is, that you live in a fallen world created by one man’s sin.  You have suffered the terrible things in your life as a result of thousands of years of literally billions of people making bad choices. Mankind took the perfect world that God gave to us and wrecked it through sin.  As children we are born into a world that our ancestors destroyed and unfortunately, many of us grew up at the mercy of troubled people. It is these people, who continue to willingly choose evil, and not God, who vex and abuse us.  We may be victims of one another but we are not, in any way, victims of God. Our heavenly Father has never abused us or intended any of us to be treated badly. If you must blame someone at least put it on the person who started it all: Lucifer.

And did you Know?

The lake of fire was created before this creation. It was created as an eternal punishment for Lucifer and his fallen angels: not you! The only way you can end up in that awful place is if you follow Satan into it.  Here is a truth,

“Every day, when you choose to ignore God, you automatically decide to follow Satan.”

You, along with the Devil, are on a highway to hell.  However, God is offering you, out of pure mercy, the only off ramp that exists: Jesus Christ. If you refuse to take the off ramp that our Father provides and continue on the road to Hell with Satan, you will end up suffering unimaginable torment with Him in the lake of fire for eternity.  It will not be God’s fault either; it will be of your own doing.

Whether or not I believe in Paris, it still exists

People say, “I don’t believe in hell.”  Saying that is as crazy and deadly as saying “I don’t believe in gravity” as you walk towards a cliff.  You can believe anything crazy thing you want to dream up until you step out into thin air and, at that point, reality takes over with a vengeance.

The truth is, that Adam messed up badly.  So badly, in fact, that all who followed after him have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God just like Adam did.  There is none righteous, no not one…not even you.  We are all worthy of death. So God asked the only one who was worthy, His son Jesus Christ, to lay down His life in our stead and pay the price for our sin. I say to you, “how can you possibly blame someone who is willing to go that far to save your soul?”  You simply can’t, you simply shouldn’t and you should just stop blaming God.

The gift of God is eternal life

God made a way for you to have eternal life even though you don’t deserve it.  Though the Devil tried to mess everything up, God in His infinite mercy and through his son Jesus Christ, made a way for you to have eternal life.  It is written,

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

2 Peter 3:9

And,

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

John 4:16

Blaming God only hurts yourself

My advice is that you stop blaming God for everything that is wrong in your life because you are only making yourself miserable. Blame gets us nowhere.  It is better to simply ask to be saved by His grace so that He can heal you and give you a new life. The fact of the matter is that God loves you more than our human minds and hearts can fathom. Just realize this , that if someone is willing to ask His own son to die in your place for your sin that God must really, really, love you.

How can I apply this teaching to my life?

There is no one here but you and God.  No one is going to judge anything you do right now.  Why don’t you pray  and ask Jesus to forgive your sins?  Tell Him that  you are a sinner and that you are sorry for all the crap you have done in  your life.  Come humbly before Him and ask for His forgiveness because you want to be saved.  Tell him that you acknowledge Jesus as your Lord and savior.  Tell God that you are willing to give everything that you have left to him.   Thank Jesus for dying 2000 years ago on the cross and for making that sacrifice so that you can be saved  Accept His Love and thank Him for His mercy.

Finally, grab yourself a bible and start reading it from the book of Matthew through to the book of Acts.  Ask Him to lead and guide you into all truth and pray daily for wisdom to be led by His Holy Spirit. If  you do these things, and truly mean what your say in your heart, Jesus will save you and He will be with you, closer than a brother, forever.  Amen

Give Me Jesus by Billy Graham

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