Faith in the Goodness of God
At some point in everyone’s life, tragedies or unexpected hardships happen to us or to those we love and care about. They can occur via the death of a loved one, a divorce, a pet dies, or loss of your own health. Will we still have faith in the goodness of God during those trials?
After the event happens, grief will come and it will affect you in your body, soul and spirit. I’ve lost my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles but nothing came close to loosing a child. The pain is so intense, and unlike anything you will ever experience.
People say to you, “I can’t imagine.”
That is true, you can’t.
Only a person who has gone through their own loss of a child can grasp it.
Because I have a relationship with God, I immediately went to Him for help in my overwhelming sadness.
I did not ask God WHY Jamie died.
I did ask God WHY when my granddaughter Lillian died in her sleep one month later.
I knew it was OK to get mad at God.
He could handle it.
In fact, even if I hadn’t said the words…He knew my thoughts and heart. So I cried out to Him with my questions and frustrations. During that time this scripture came alive to me.
“Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16).
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 5:1
I already knew God formed us in the womb, I came to see that our days on earth were ordained for us before the beginning of time.
God in His “purpose and foreknowledge” allowed Jesus to be handed over to the Pontius Pilate and the Sanhedrin. (a Jewish court of Law) They were evil men yet God used them to accomplish His purpose. Paul said, this man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. Just like last week I posted on Job and how he had to get permission to take away from Job all that he had.
Not being a theologian, I am still trying to figure the theology of it all out. I know in my heart God is not surprised by anything that happens to us on earth; so he was not surprised by the death of Jamie and Lillian. Heck, He knows when a sparrow falls to the ground, and He knows the exact number of the hairs on our head.
It is a theological puzzle for me.
Yet, God sees all things, and nothing can be hidden from His knowledge—not even the secret intentions of the heart (Psalm 44:21).
Everyone grieves differently I have seen this in my own immediate family, there is not one right way. Everyone is different. The grief I have felt and continue to feel has forced me into a deeper relationship with God. Tragedy or hardships will either confirm your faith or you walk away.
I hope my ramblings have helped you see that God is good all the time even in our sorrows. God may not always appear good to us, when we are going through a tragedy but in His divine nature He is good.
Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please. (Isaiah 46:9-10)
For me in dealing with my grief, I have found that the goodness of God is reflected in the solution He gave us for the problems of sin and death – His only Son, Jesus. Because sin and death entered the world (at the time of man’s “Fall”), God had great compassion for our suffering. So He brought about the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ to overcome these things. Because of God’s goodness and Christ’s resurrection, we do have eternal hope that we will be with our loved ones who are believers again, and as you said, for all eternity.
-Your words are resolute, touching and understood. I look forward to your good words which supersedes often what pastors or clergy share. You are an ambassador if Christ and I am encouraged, thank god for you and your unyielding faith. Your ramblings as you say are precious and priceless. Thank you.
Thank you Maria. (((hugs)))
“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have over come the world.” John 16:33
How consoling it is to those who are called upon to mourn the loss of dear family and friends in death, to know that we will again be associated with them! How encouraging to all who live according to the revealed principles of truth, perhaps more especially to those whose lives are pretty well spent, who have borne the heat and burden of the day, to know that ere long we shall burst the barriers of the tomb, and come forth living and immortal souls, to enjoy the society of our family, and our tried and trusted friends, no more to be afflicted with the seeds of death and sorrow, and to finish the work the Father has given us to do!
Yes it our hope, knowing we will be together again for all eternity. Can’t wait!