Evil and sickness

"If God is so good, why is there so much evil and death and hardship in the world?"

How many times have we heard that question? The answers are varied, depending on where they come from. Non-believers assume that either God isn't as powerful as we say He is, or He has a capricious, malevolent side to His nature. Believers' answers are even more diverse. God sends trials to test us or perfect us. We bring them on ourselves. It is fore-ordained that we endure hardship, for some reason. What Satan sends to torment us, God often uses for good, so He doesn't stop Satan's "pranks."

Huh.

Frankly, those answers never satisfied me.

So, I kept searching...and have been slowly piecing the following thoughts together. They were summed up on Sunday by the sermon that evening.

Like I said before, God is a God of Love. He desires relationship with us, and wants to bestow all possible blessings on us. IF He withholds something desired, it is for that person's protection, not because He doesn't feel like being generous. If he got that promotion, he would get more money, sure, but he'd also lose important time with his family...and may even get seduced into a corporate crime. It may not be that obvious, but the point is: IT'S FOR OUR OWN GOOD. I'm talking about keeping something back here, not punishing.

So, what about 9-11? How about all the cancers, AIDS, and other diseases? What about the fatal accidents we hear reported every day? Why do they happen?

There is a formula (not perfectly mathematical, but close enough) that God laid out for us; simple to understand, but very hard to follow:

If you love Me, you will obey Me. If you obey Me, I will bestow untold blessings on you and protect you from harm, because I love you.
If you disobey Me, you step out of My protection. You tie My hands; I will not bless your disobedience, and I can not protect you from Satan's attacks.

When I say "can not," I'm not saying that God is impotent. Rather, since He gave us a free will, He lets us decide if we will choose Him (life) or Satan (death). Even as Christians (and most dangerously so), we can rebell against Him. He will not interfere with our decisions, and once we have stepped out from under His protection, we are fair game to the Enemy. We have, intentionally or not, declared: "God, I agree with Satan, and don't want Your rulership or protection, so I'm going to obey him, and give my allegience to him."

Christ said we can't serve two masters: if we're not God's, we're Satan's. If we are God's, He gives us the gifts of His Kingdom: Life, Love, Liberty in Him. If we are Satan's, we receive the gifts of his kingdom: death, hate, slavery to darkness.

Hmm.

That does seem to explain quite a bit, doesn't it? Take a look at Deuteronomy 28. Very illuminating.

More on this later. Until then!

~Chelsea