God Forgive Us!

People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the LORD. [Proverbs 19.3]

Okay, here we go again...

When ruin comes to our lives, it is not the work of God, but our own. The very fact that people would get mad at God when trouble or disaster strikes, is proof-positive that we are proud, arrogant, and in denial.

What people have failed to do is recognize that pain and suffering are punishment for sin. Period. For those who would argue otherwise, I encourage a thorough reading of Deuteronomy 28. The definitions given in that chapter for obedience and disobedience and their consequences tells us everything we need to know about blessings and curses.

Curses are the result of sin.

Blessings are the result of obedience.

Curses are bad things: pain, suffering, and loss.

Blessings are good things: health, well-being, and gain.

The presence of curses can only signify one thing: sin.

The presence of blessings can only signify one thing: obedience.

Yeah, I know, I am going absolutely contrary to a lot of doctrinal teaching out there today. And, yes, it really does present a problem when a "saint" in the church is struck with terminal cancer.

But my question should not be overlooked: When a "saint" in our church dies of cancer, do we ignore God's holy Word and declare the cursed one innocent anyway? Do we dare call something good that God has clearly defined as bad? Will we be so bold as to refute God?

But that is precisely what we do when we say pain, suffering and loss are some kind of blessing from God! Are we willing to go there? Oh, we already have!

God, forgive us!

So then, what is the answer? The answer is to humble ourselves and pray and seek God's face! The answer is to repent! Even if we don't know what is wrong, we have the obvious result of sin glaring at us, so the burden to know what caused it falls on us! Remember Achan (Joshua 7)? Remember that Israel suffered loss and they immediately went to God to find out why BECAUSE THEY DID NOT IMMEDIATELY KNOW! But they did not say their defeat was some kind of unknown blessing from God! Hello!

Actually, I prefer to deal with someone angry at God about their suffering rather than someone who arrogantly claims "blessing" in the face of obvious "curse." At least the angry person knows something is not right (proud and entitled as they may be).

Father, help us to repent. Help us to be repentant. Help us to accept the obvious implication that we need to seek where we have gone wrong when trouble strikes and then repent of it! Help us to let go of arrogant doctrines that simply contain no truth whatsoever.