God of Trouble

It's interesting, but it's actually more common for Christians to believe that God is the source of our trouble than it is for the world to believe that. The world wrestles with theodicy - the problem of evil in the world in contrast to stories about a loving God - but they do so on sort of a grand, philosophical scale. Christians, on the other hand, seem to wrestle with it on a very personal level. And what they often come up with is that God is causing our problems. 

We have a number of reasons we give for attempting to justify this line of thinking. Perhaps God is testing us. Perhaps we have sinned and we are being punished. Perhaps our parents or grandparents sinned and we are just bearing the burden of it. And on and on and on we go, attempting to justify in our minds how our loving God could still be loving us while also giving us trouble. 

And, of course, we always say that "God's discipline is good even if it doesn't feel good." But we say this while trying to justify what would not be a loving, disciplining Father but an abusive monster. 

Friends, that's just no way to believe. That's no God to believe in. That's no Lord to love. 

The Bible tells us plainly that the things that we say aren't true.

God doesn't tempt us. God always gives us a way to stand up under temptation. God already punished Jesus for our sin; if He was punishing us with terrible things, it would be rendering less-than-perfect the sacrifice of His Son. Can you imagine Him doing that? God doesn't punish us for the sins of others; He stopped that practice well before Jesus, and Jesus did not bring it back. God's discipline isn't abusive. 

The Bible is clear on these things.

And in case it weren't, in case we can't read the very plain words written right in front of our faces over and over and over again, through covenant after covenant, through the Gospel (the Good News) of Jesus, and into the church, God gave us one more story that ought to put this to bed for us: 

Job. 

Job is a lesson in the trouble that we have in this world. And...none of it was caused by God. Not a bit of it. 

Job considers the idea. His friends feed him the same ideas that we have when we're trying to justify our troubles as God's doing. But Job comes to the same conclusion every time - nope. Wasn't God. Wasn't my sin. Wasn't some punishment. Isn't some discipline. Isn't God's doing, at all. God is still good. God is still faithful. God still loves me. 

And...the book tells us he's right. The book tells us God didn't cause any of Job's troubles. 

So if the rest of the witness of the Bible wasn't enough, we have this. 

Is God the cause of your trouble in any way, shape, or form? 

One look at the Cross should answer that.