Do you believe that God ordains all of the suffering that we experience or do you believe that He merely permits it to happen or, maybe, a combination of both?
Thanks for your thoughts.
God bless
Thanks for your thoughts.
God bless
Drotar said:I believe that suffering exists in His plan through His permissive decree. I don't know...
Andrew said:And there are sufferings that a Christian ought not to accept and suffer, like sickness, poverty, accidents and premature death. These are from the devil and we should resist him.
How can God plan/ordain evil for us? He only permits them.
Jer 29 11 For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Drotar said:He ordains them, but does not personally, actively bring it about. Much like reprobation.
John 9:1-3
Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.
This man is one of many examples of people whom the Lord brought into the world blind so that at the appointed time the glory of God could be revealed.
This is just plain lazy interpretation.
Andrew said:Firstly, that verse does not in any way say that God made him blind.
Gosh, why dont you ask God to give you a blind child then, or one born without legs, then His glory can be revealed.
the things of God are simple. A child can understand it, but not hocus pocus homophisolophical theologians trying to be smart.
If you preach that God ordains evil and does things like bring lame babies into the world then you havent understood the simplicity of the verse:
Joh 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
When a blind baby is born into the world, the parents don't go:"Praise the Lord, this is abundant life!"
So, who's side are you on? the destroyer?
I know that God works ALL things to the good of those who love Him and are called according TO HIS PURPOSE. Neat how that statement ends, huh? It's according to His purpose, not yours, not mine. So, when we think something doesn't go our way or we view a circumstance as bad, like our child being born blind, the truth is that it's good because God is working it to our good. We are being sanctified by that.
You are stuck on how it affects you and how you feeeeeel about it. How should you feel about it? You should be thankful that the good Lord gave you such a precious creation as well as the opportunity to become humble and caring and able to focus your life on someone else.
We were created to worship Him not so that we could have a calamity free life
rotorhead said:I had to vote for a combination. But I don't think even that answer fully explains it.
According to the Bible, Job was righteous and still suffered. Why? Because God allowed Satan to tempt him. So there we have God allowing it, though not causing it.
Mush of our suffering is simply a result of our living in a fallen world. Adam was essentially cursed to suffer in his work, and Eve to suffer in childbirth, decreed by God as a direct result of sin. Suffering is an unavoidable result of human sin.
I think some of our suffering is directly caused by God though. Not that it is evil. God has spoken volumes to me through suffering of various sorts. That's because my fleshly nature is to avoid Him when things seem fine. Suffering brings us back to God. I've seen plenty of times when God has directly thwarted my personal plans, and I felt I was suffering unjustly. But God works those situations for His purposes, which are ultimately to bring me closer to Him.
I like what shelb5 said about God's purpose. It is not ultimately important to God if we remain single, though we long for a companion, or struggle to pay the bills, or lose a limb, or whatever.
Can God cause suffering and calamity? Of course. it would be awfully hard to read the Bible and not see that. But those sufferings are for a purpose. Study the Israelites. God spent a lot of time making them suffer, for the sole purpose of drawing them back to Him.
Shelb5 said:God can bring good out of everything if we unite it to him but it takes trusting that he is working good for his purpose even if we will never see the good this side of heaven.
It is okay to ask God to remove our sufferings, Jesus asked too but we always assent that it is God's will that is done and not our own. If the suffering remains, we know he is with us and he will not forsake us and he will bring good from our pain. Just in the same way he did for Jesus.
Accepting suffering as a grace, putting our trust in God that he loves us, died for us and that he will bring good from our suffering the same way he ordained that Christs suffering brought good is the power of the cross and that gives God true glory.
What power is there in a God that died just so we never have to suffer again? Power is when we are transformed by the cross not just given what ever we ask for, disregarding God's sovereign will over everything.
Reformationist said:I don't know Michelle. I think this is a very self centered view of God's ability to work things according to His purpose. It seems to me that you are saying that God's ability to conform us to the image of His Son is directly dependent on our cooperation. Is that what you believe or do you believe that God sanctifies us despite that we often don't cooperate by handling things in a Godly way, i.e., if we "unite it to Him?"
Shelb5 said:How come I just knew you were going to question me on this.
What I mean is that God will work things for his good, we can not stop that but how we accept it will effect us.
If we give Satan all the credit we are opening up ourselves to oppression which means we will never be able to have peace and to reap the good from God. We will be a slave to our sufferings, which will lead us into despair.
Andrew sees suffering as a curse that should be rebuked and all that does is just give Satan power to keep you bound to him all the more.
Christ broke his power through suffering in obedience, not rebuking it but embracing God's will and we have that same power when we do not rebuke but humble accept and unite it to Jesus' sufferings on the cross.
The Power of the cross is what breaks the power of Satan and then the good that God IS drawing out of our sufferings can manifest.