God, How Could You Let This Happen?

When have you looked at circumstances either in the world or in your own life and said to or about God, "how could you let this happen, what were you thinking? What happens to us when the circumstances in our world are beyond our understanding, and when our God is not who we thought?

Join us as we explore scripture to use these times as an opportunity and blessing calling us deeper into our relationship with God, to seek Him and know HIm as He is, and to move deeper into our faith.

Please feel free to comment, correspondance can be sent to jackie1652@yahoo.com
Upcoming episodes can also be found directly at https://roughplacesintolevelground.buzzsprout.com

Transcript

God, How Could You Let This Happen?

     Can you remember a time you said to someone, “what were you thinking, how could you let this happen?” Or maybe you asked in total dismay, “why did you do that?” These are all statements that can reflect our anger, disappointment or unbelief that someone did or said something, and undoubtedly it was something that brought us pain.

      Now here is a bigger question to think about. When have you looked at circumstances either in the world or in your own life and said to or about God, “how could you let this happen, what were you thinking?”  Or you thought to yourself, the God I know would never allow this to happen. Maybe it was at the death of a child, a loved one who suffered terribly with illness, a school shooting, a fatal accident, or any other number of things we struggle to make sense of and understand. And as we question how God can let this happen, we need to consider that our questions reflect that we do not know God as we thought we did. It is at these moments the God we have constructed in our heads is not who we think He is or “should” be. Our God in all His Sovereignty did not act in a way He “should” have. What happens to us when the circumstances in our world are beyond our understanding, and when our God is not who we thought? 

     Now I realize these are weighty questions. Maybe so heavy that they can cause us to question and begin to doubt God, to question His goodness and care for us, and even to say that we can not believe in a God who allows such pain and tragedy. But what if we saw this moment as an opportunity and blessing calling us deeper into our relationship with God, and to draw nearer to God and to seek to know Him as He is, and to learn to move deeper into faith? Maybe these times are meant to ask ourselves if we have created a knowing of God that fits within our own limited understanding and made Him to be what we need and want, when we need and want.

     As we go to scripture, searching God’s word we come to learn that God is not a God of what we would define as fairness, He is a God of grace, giving us what we, who offend Him constantly in our sin, do not deserve.  He offers those of us who believe in His Son, Jesus, an eternity with Him. He tells us in Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away”.

God reveals much to us in His Word about who He is, and yet there remains much mystery, much we do not know.  In Isaiah 55:8-9 He tells us that His thoughts and ways are not ours. They are beyond us. Also, in Isaiah we are told there is none besides God. He is Lord and there is no other. He forms light and darkness and makes well-being and calamity. He is the Lord who does all these things. And many of these things are beyond our understanding. In Deuteronomy 29:29 we are told, things that are secret and yet to be revealed belong to God and those revealed to us are ours so that we will do all the words of His law. And we know from Romans 8:28 that God uses all for good for those who believe and uses all things to accomplish His purposes. And from our limited perspective and understanding we may not see clearly what His purposes are, and we cannot understand the pain we witness and experience. But we do know from Jeremiah 18 that we are all in His hand are being shaped. And Romans 8:29 tells us shaped to become more like Jesus. 

Probably much like you I can not say that I have not cried out to God, in my anger and pain, “Why”? And my God tells me in His Word that I will have trouble in this world and that I will not understand all His ways and He also tells me in Isaiah 41:10, “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

It is not ours to understand all the ways of the Almighty God. And if we can accept that and read God’s word to us and learn all He tells us that He is and all He promises, we can begin to know and experience His comfort and presence the more we seek Him, and to come to be able to say, “your ways are beyond me but I trust you no matter what.” In all the pain, sorrow and at times just the utter insanity of this world, the reality that others are as broken as we are and can be the carriers of our pain, where do we turn? Just as Peter said to Jesus in John 6:68: “Lord to whom shall we go?”

So just maybe the next time we find ourselves wondering or yelling out in pain, “how could this happen”, and find ourselves willing to reject God and be angry over how He is running this world, we could instead stop and see it as a blessing, and hear it as our God calling us to come closer to Him.

In closing let me share a quote from C.S. Lewis from his book Mere Christianity. “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”  So many times, we cannot find understanding in all the hurt, pain, and loss this world can bring, but we can find a peace and a trust that will surpass all understanding when we turn to our Lord. It is a supernatural presence in our lives that promises to carry us through this world. And our Father tells us multiple times in scripture that if we seek Him with our whole heart, we will find Him.

Please join me in prayer as we close.   Father, as always, we give thanks for your words, calling to us, calling us closer to you, to know you and be in relationship. A relationship where you promise to care for us and guide us through this world and home to you, to live with you in your Kingdom where there will be no more pain, suffering, tears and death. Help us Father to accept all we do not understand and to trust you are using everything you allow to come to us to bring us closer to you. Hold us Father, strengthen us, heal us, uphold us in your arms.  We pray these things in Jesus, Amen.