Christian Thoughts

Are there exact answers?

I immediately became inspired after reading another hub today, which was titled: “Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen to Good People”? A lot of thought and help came from the blog to others and I am not here to take away, only add some further thoughts and I believe when God gives us something to write and share, we should do so. My thoughts went to work on more questions that go along with the hub. Why are there not more answers which we can clearly understand? . Why do people suffer when they live their life the best they know how? Why do we have to hurt period? Why, Why, and Why? Why is it that parents often have to deal with an addictive child when they took him/her to church and taught him/her how to pray all of their life? Why it is that one life is taken and another one saved? Why do earthquakes destroy thousands of people? Why is it that people all around us are hurting, they are without jobs, food and losing their homes? Why would God allow so much pain? Why was my friend’s grandchild born with spinal bifida? Why could God let something like this happen to a precious newborn, which has never even lived one day yet? He lay on this stomach for six weeks after the surgery. He cannot walk, but he is a delight to know and there is nothing wrong with his mind. He is almost two years old now and he is such a precious child who smiles a lot and is joyful. He has a spirit that I am almost sure that God wishes we all had, because it says in the Bible we must become as little children. The whys could go on for pages, I am sure.

My perception from what I know from the Bible:

I do not know all of the answers either and it is actually so hard to explain the whys. It is hard to praise God when you are hurting from a tragedy or a loss of any kind because we don’t understand the whys. We cannot grasp why is a loving God letting these things happen. In fact it is almost impossible to praise. When I have been placed in a position of pure distraught, not necessarily tragedy, I could not pray much less praise. Someone had to pray for me. Yet the scripture states in Ephesians 5:20KJV: “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. That is what is called Christian grace; at least that is in the reference tag in the book of Ephesians. Let’s talk about the meaning of grace. My dictionary states it is mercy, forgiveness, benevolence, charity, compassion, generosity, kindness, pardon and many other words, too numerous to write. My first thoughts are, of course, how in the world can a human being, whether a Christian or not, find the grace to praise God in the face of tragedy? I believe a normal question with valid reasons. Another scripture that goes along with this one is this one: “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it”. Psalms 118: 23 KJV. How do we do this when we are devastated with sorrow? Good question and I don’t know if there is an answer. But there are scriptures which give it more possibility.

I am not a graduate of seminary, nor do I profess to be a historic bible scholar, I am only trying to plant a seed of thought; but what I do know is what the scripture states and how we need to rely upon God to heal the hurts we don’t deserve.

From the beginning of time after Adam and Eve, there has been destruction, sin, trouble, anger, death, sorrow, floods, suffering, killing, disaster, pain, all the negative things we have today. We also know that per the Bible; sin bringeth forth death; not physical death but spiritual death. I am sure it can also bring about physical death as we know it. It has not changed and it never will. When reading the Revelations, you will know there is more to come. A lot people rely solely on the New Testament not realizing that the New Testament refers back to the Old Testament and therefore we can gain more insight and learn about how this all flows together. The Old Testament is where the gospel of Christ started in reference to his coming and the New Testament states that all things must be fulfilled regarding the writing of the prophets. Matt 1:23: “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us”. This scripture is reference by Isaiah 7: 14; which says: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel”.

In Hebrews: 11: 17 "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son". If we refer back to Genesis 22 we can read there how God spoke unto Abraham and told him to offer his only son. We know that Abraham did not have to kill his son; because in Verse 11-12:

And the Angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, Here am I and He said, lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou has not withheld thy son, thine only son from me".

We know that this was a test from God to see if Abraham was willing to do as the Lord had told him. God wanted to make sure his servant was listening to what he had to say. Abraham did not know that the ram would appear for his brunt offering; but he carried on and I am sure it was something that took every ounce of his strength. I am glad we are not put in these kinds of situations today. I think a lot of times though when the Lord speaks to us, we ignore Him and do not carry out His will in our life, we try to do it our way. I believe that we generate some of our sorrow and pain because we do not have what Abraham had....what he was asked to do would be something today that is unthinkable. If we are to understand why we sometimes hurt over things we had no control over, we must separate what we have control over and what we do not. In looking at what we have control over; the flesh tells people to drink acohol which can be deadly. The flesh tells individuals to engage in extra martial affairs when they know someone is going to be hurt for sure and the children hurt the worse. We spend too much money sometimes in the wrong places. We do not pray enough, we do not read the word enough and sometimes we endulge in behaviors that are unbecoming to anyone, regardless of being a Christian or not and we are setting ourselves up for heatache. We have nothing like what Abraham had to face; most of the time do not listen, study, seek God before we make decisions that cause us grief. There is a difference and we must know the difference before we say we are suffering without cause....

One of the most beautiful scripture I know that can bring consolation is Psalms 34: 18:

“The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit”. Verse 19: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivereth him out of them all”.

David’s prayers and his love God and God’s love for him are expressed in Psalms. Many wonderful scriptures to help heal any problem one might have. Psalms also admonishes us to flee the evil things of life and do good, seek peace and pursue it. When you read Psalms you can see that it is one of the most “positive thinking” books you can read in so much it. “Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart”. Psalm 37:4. No one has a “perfect” life. If we have not suffered some kind of pain to date, I hate to say it, but we probably will. It is part of life and part of the whys. It is a part of growing, learning and becoming stronger. Not any of us want to neither suffer nor see people we love suffer, but we know that “life is unfair”, it just is…. The aforementioned was voiced by a Psychologist who spoke at a conference in which I attended and her words have stuck with me vividly since that time.

We may not understand God’s plan and that is why the scripture tells us in Isaiah 55:8 – 9

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts”.

I do not know all the answers and do not claim to nor do I understand all of it myself, but I try not to dwell on what I have no control over but work on myself to make sure that I am strong enough to deal with my battles, one day at a time. I have questioned so many times just like everybody else, but what I do know is that if there were no problems, no death, no struggles, nothing bad, we would be living in the Garden of Eden and there would be no world as we see it today. With that said, we can rely on God and His promises that He will deliver us from all manner of sickness, our heartaches, our mourning, and our pain. He is neigh unto those that trust in Him…without a doubt and He and only He can heal the heart full of pain…from whatever source it is. He is the one who gives us strength to carry on, to get up and shake ourselves in the midst of trouble and know that life has to be lived until we are done and if we are to live it with “grace”, “courage” and “hope”, we must trust in Him.

Please know that the words written on these pages are my perceptions, not hubpages and I do not wish to be offensive to anyone. We all have different beliefs and perceptions and I do not intend to display that I have more knowledge than anyone else. I have only written what has come to me from inspiration from above. If you have never felt this inspiration, I trust you one day will. There have been several writers on hubpages who have influenced me to write what I know or should say what I have been given.

Linda