Disappointment with God...

[UCLA]

As I grow older and more educated, I am learning to think for myself and question the validity of thoughts I hold to be true.

One of them is faith. I cannot say that I am the same believer who grew up in the church, who accepted the bible as whole truth as I once did. And no, I am not renouncing my faith, but I am questioning.

What does God say about the helpless caught up in the daily affairs of life? Those who have worked all their lives just to make a living? How does one see life as a gift if one cannot enjoy the fruits of it?

A good family friend of ours is dying with prostate cancer. He has no insurance and cannot afford treatment. Doctors told him that he is at the stage where accepting his death peacefully is the only alternative. My mother was also diagnosed with breast cancer few months ago. Fortunately for her, she had a friend who provided medical insurance.

I am not saying that God is at fault for causing cancer. but as long as he is the same God who loves us enough to send his son to die for our sins, why does it seem like he doesn't care? I know the usual response is he does... but to those who are suffering, outcome is the same: they are dying and will most likely die.

God seems so passive. I don't think he is really what people make of him. How can the events of healing and miracles be true? It was written more than 1500 years ago. Do you see dead men rising today? Have you seen an amputee's limb grow back? When was the last time you heard of a supernatural healing of a cancer patient?

I certainly havent, and if you are a person of conscience, you too would agree that it is only a story, a legend. I am desperately trying to help the desperately sick. I want to go on a fast to hear from God and gain favor from him but I fear that I will be let down. I know that I will be letdown, because whether I pray or not, life will go as planned. Some will die and some won't. Does God really care or do people hope that he does?

 

[joanna1]

How I understand where you are coming from...Have you read the "disappointment with GOD" Yancey book? It offers no wonderful answers but it's interesting.

I think the key is that until we realise that prayer is actually trusting God's will and asking him to change us raher than circumstances, prayer does seem worthless. Indeed God answers yes sometimes, no sometimes... He choses where and when. There is suffering, unfairness, heartbreak in this world.
The problem is what i've just said is probably making you really angry and wanting to skip the rest of my post. The thought of us not having control is humanly unbearable. There is no solution. Often man has to go through unbearable heartbreak to come to the understanding of this concept "your will be done". It's often a long and hard journey of several years from where you're standing now. It was for me - i'm not quite there yet and it's by no means easy when you get there. But the sooner you get started, the sooner you'll reach the end
If found this article helpful http://www.etpv.org/2005/shdr.html, and also the "living fearlessly" book of Sheila Walsh, which is a woman's book but also one very relevant to this type of question.

 

[PastorChester]

As a young man myself, I found myself inflicted with the same thoughts. If God is there, why doesn't he help? If we are true believers and there is someone there that does care for us, then how are we to explain devastating illness and disease, famine and drought, war and all of that? Why doesn't he come down and save us from this and smite those that are to be smited and all of that?

I feel that God wants us to help ourselves before He actually decides to change things. He wants everyone, and not just your friend and your mom to understand but, everyone in the world, to come to the conclusion that we are all in this together and the moment, everyone believes that there is only one true God and we all give our lives up to Him will everyone be truly saved.

God's miracles aren't curing cancer for one person or someone winning a million dollars or something like that. God's miracles are a mom who works three jobs and has four kids and no husband find the time to spend time with her kids. Miracles happen all the time, to the right person, you just have to really see them.

 

[QuoVadisNation]

UCLA, your concerns are classic. Adding to the wise words of the guys above, I might add that that question isn't all that unique.

If God cares for us and is omnipotent, then he'd want to help us.
If God doesn't want to help us, then God either does not care or is not omnipotent.
ergo, etc. (classic fallacy, btw)

The problem with that argument, granted, is that "helping us" is ambiguous (so is "caring for", but let's not go there).
Does God help us with salvation? sure. Does God help us by cleaning humanities' iniquities like starvation and other things like disease? err.. He doesn't have that great a track record there. o_o Why this is exactly to another matter, but I'd refer to PastorChester's comment.

edit: my condolences by the way.

 

[epyon]

I do feel that way but I alway must remind myself that God is in control.

 

[Crusading_Ostrich]

This is a good post. Why does it seem like God can be so far away? I don’t know. People make God out to be all types of things – a great avenger, a kind shoulder, a distant figure – yet God can be all of these things, or none of these things. How does one describe God? The Bible says certain things about God – which I believe are true – yet throughout life today, what something says in the Bible and what one is feeling and experiencing are different things.
Yet I don’t think God is our key out of difficulty and suffering. Sometimes one has to go through things – perhaps even wondering if God is there. I don’t think God abandons any of us, and yet if prayers aren’t being answered the way we want I don’t think that implies anything wrong on our part either. I believe that God does care about us yet we also have to look at the world of sin we live in. This sounds terribly cliché, and I’m sorry for that, but if God was raising dead men today what effect would that have on the world? Would we listen? Would we all turn to him? I don’t know. Is it right to expect miracles? Or should God let everyone live? Wasn’t that how he made us?
Despite the world of suffering that we have, perhaps there are ways that we can help each other too. Do we work through our governments to ensure we all are taken care of? Or when we are taken care of do we complain too much of things that aren’t going our way? Perhaps we are too often focused on ourselves, perhaps we should be willing to help and be burned rather than stay silent and safe. It doesn’t sound like a rational policy but is love rational? I don’t know. Perhaps we just wait, stand firm, hope, and have faith.

 

[fuzzyh]

You are presenting the single greatest cause for doubt of the Christian faith. Why would an all good God allow such pain and suffering, especially if he has the ability to do so. This is most difficult for Christians, because it is a very personal thing. So often it hurts us to watch others suffer. However, we cannot trust our feelings for any sort of truth claim. If we did, we would end up in all types of crazy ideas.

I use two reasons why I believe in God even under the problem of evil and suffering.

First, if there wasn't a God there would be no reason to believe that suffering is wrong. Simply put, without God it may hurt you when someone suffers, but it has absolutely nothing to do with it being right or wrong. If it is wrong to have the innocent suffer, beyond just the fact that it hurts you, there is a standard outside of you. That standard must have come from God. If that's the case we go on to the second reason.

If God exists and evil exists. We can conclude that God thought that creating the world was good, even if it was corrupted. Is it better to have children, knowing that they may die, or to not have children? Another way to looking at it is, "It's better to love and lost, than never to loved at all."

In spite of the suffering, perhaps this can be used for something helpful. Are these people saved? God provides a way for these people to be with him eternally. These people lose a body that is falling apart to regain a more complete fellowship with God.

I hope that helps. I know it's less of a emotional encouragement, than most people give. I do sympathize with you. I look at someone like Ezekiel who knew his wife was going to die. Yet he was unable to grieve for her publicly. I'm certain that it is difficult times.

 

[mary48]

The bible tlls us that Jesus died not only for our sins but sickness to. We have to receive his healing has been paid for just like you received him as your Saviour. God loves each and everyone of us so He bought the price and bore it on the cross. If you are in lack He paid the price that you can receive wealth,need healing look at the cross. What we need to do is not look at the proublem but the answer. By HIs stripes we are healed 1 peter 2.24 I hope this will help someone here