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Pointers along the way #449

God's will and control
- Jacob Ninan

Is whatever that happens to us God's will for us? When we say God is in full control of everything in the world, is He is the one who makes everything happen to us?

God does not want us, His children, to marry an unbeliever. But if we marry one, can we say that God was the one who gave him/her to us? If we drink too much and die of cirrhosis of the liver, or play loose with sex and die of AIDS, can we say God allowed us to go that way and it is His fault?

When we say something is God's will for us what we mean is that it is what God desires for us. But does what He wills for us happen always? Many times we disobey God and do our own will, don't we? What happens to us then as a consequence of our disobedience was not what God desired for us, was it? So it was not God's will that happened to us! If we had obeyed what God wanted us to do, then we could say that God's will has been accomplished in our life.

If God is in full control, why do bad things happen to innocent people? Does it show that He is really not in full control?

God is certainly in full control. He does whatever He pleases (Ps.115:3). He can do anything He wants; He is omnipotent. But it has pleased God to create man in His image, and a part of this image is our freedom to choose what we like. This freedom is limited, because we are not omnipotent. Many times we misuse this freedom, and then we suffer the consequences. If someone else misuses his/her freedom we may also suffer as a result. If God were to place absolute control over us (or others) we wouldn't have any freedom to choose. We wouldn't even be free to choose to love God. But His absolute control exists with a provision for our limited free will.

We have freedom to ask God to do something for us, and when God does that it would not be against our free will! But many times we don't ask (Jas.4:2). Many times we ask for wrong things and then He doesn't give (1Jn.5:14). Sometimes if we pester Him for some wrong thing, He may even give in to us, but we will be the losers (Ps.106:15).

Obviously there is a lot of mystery about this subject. We can't understand everything. But we should understand enough to stop blaming God when we should be taking the blame, and stop expecting that God should do everything good for us even when we are fooling around with Him or taking Him for granted. Sometimes others are to be blamed for what happens to us, and sometimes no one in particular is to be blamed but the fact that the whole world is suffering from corruption because of the presence of sin (e.g., natural calamities, sicknesses).

Thank God for the freedom to choose to love Him, and for the freedom to choose His will above our own will. Thank God He keeps full control of the world that we are protected from things that are too much for us (1Co.10:13), and causes even bad things that happen to us to bring something eternally good for us (Ro.8:28,29). One day He will answer all our questions.

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