Day Two of 40 Days of Purpose

You Are Not An Accident! I have to admit that I struggle a bit with this concept. It is that old struggle with understanding that God knows and controls and yet he gives freedom of choice and allows bad things to happen to good people. It is a wonderfully encouraging thought and a disconcerting one at the same time, to think that God knows all about me and yet I question why in those areas of my life where things have happened that hurt. Job struggled with the same issue. He believed in a God that was in control, and that was the problem, “If God is in control, then why has he brought these terrible things upon me.” We often hear of this referred to as the “problem of suffering” in apologetics. Actually for the believer, it is the problem of faith. For the fact that we believe in a God who knows and controls puts us in the position of having to question if our faith in the activity and compassion of God is valid, and if it is, then there must be a purpose in what we are experiencing. Which is harder to believe, our view of God, or that suffering has a purpose?

This day uses one of my favorite passages in all of the Bible, Psalm 139:15. Let me apply it with a little more of the context:

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psa 139:13-16 NIV)

The challenge is not in believing there is a God. The challenge is not in believing that that God is a God of wisdom and power. The challenge is not even in believing that he is still that same God when things happen in my life that hurt and seem unfair. For my experience does not change God from being God. The challenge is in believing that God loves me when he lets these terrible things happen to me or to someone I love. And without the faith that there is a higher purpose to be accomplished, even in my pain, I don’t know that I could keep believing that He loves me. That’s why knowing my purpose through what God did for me out of love at the cross is so very important.

David