God suffers when we do…
The whole world is heading for a time of big changes and much suffering… much suffering that has been predicted in the Scriptures and will be sent on mankind by an exasperated God who has tried everything else so as to change our ways of living and thinking and make good people out of us, worthy of entering one day his eternal kingdom.
I am concerned that people will blame our loving God and our Saviour Jesus Christ for all the evil and hurt that is decreed and that humanity will soon have to experience.
How can I begin to explain in a few words why God will bring about the terrible sufferings.
Wars, like the one which is now destroying the whole of Ukraine, and Israel.
Famines, like those who threaten to decimate Yemen’s or Afghanistan’s whole populations,
Earthquakes, like the one that toppled thousands of buildings on their sleeping residents recently in Turkey,
Deadly pandemics, that will kill millions, perhaps our loved ones too…
I am afraid that people will blame God for all of these calamities, and harden their hearts towards him, instead of blaming themselves for the evil they cause to others without remorse, and for the grief that they cause to our good and holy Creator by saddening and ignoring him.
I am afraid that they will not understand, as I do, that God suffers when we suffer, just like parents suffer when putting their children through a painful discipline, for its own good…
Yes, I want to convey to you all what I am learning from God’s Word and from my own experiences of emotional suffering which you do not know much about and could have considered to be insignificant if you did, but which nevertheless torture me deeply.
I plead with you:
Let us not blame God for the terrible things that may happen to us!
Let us rely on the fact that he most certainly loves us, as he says in the Bible.
He proved it by coming to earth himself, so as to suffer and die in order to be able to redeem us, pay for what needed to be paid so that we may escape much worse suffering after our death, by choosing to love him and submit to him!
There is no doubt that he truly loves us. He proved it by accepting to have his only Son crucified for his Justice’s sake, instead of damning us out of his kingdom.
Let us not blame him for what mankind brings upon itself!
Let us learn from our sufferings and let us love him, because he dearly loves us.
=====================If my neighbour or some friend of mine hurts my feelings in some way, I will get hurt, but I will soon get over it and go on living my life without him or her.
But if someone that I love very much hurts me, it will be entirely another matter: I will be totally devastated since I love them wholeheartedly and want them to remain in my life I will not be happy until that person stops hurting my feelings and responds to my love.
The same stands for our Creator!
He loves us very very much, more than we can imagine or comprehend, and when we disappoint him and offend him by our attitude and actions, God finds himself terribly unhappy, one could even say: devastated.
Even though God lives in heaven, in a wonderful place, surrounded by much beauty and happiness, he is heartbroken because of us, and will remains heartbroken until we change…
It is beyond my comprehension that God loves us so much but he clearly does so, and I have to keep on reminding myself of this. I need to be very careful not to hurt him…
And this stands for each one of us, his chosen children. We all live self- centred, selfish lives… and by doing so we keep on spoiling God’s happiness.
No wonder that his words, in the Bible, are full of reproaches, accusations, and exhortations and threats!
As long as we, his creation, remain un-repented and rebellious towards him, God cannot be truly happy himself, nor fulfil his plans of happiness and prosperity for all.
He has to put up with us and keep on trying to sort out the mess and unhappiness we are causing, even while he constantly bears a heavy heart because of our waywardness…
The repentance that he demands of us is not so much to stop hurting our fellow men in one way or another, but primarily to stop hurting him, our good God, by our attitude and our deeds.
This is why, it seems to me, Jesus taught us to pray: lmay your Kingdom come and your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven!”
Jesus wants to spare his Father of the unhappiness this world cause him as long as he won’t intervene and make an end to our rebellious ways…
Once we realise how hurt God is because of us, we would stop complaining to him whenever things do not work out well for us, for it goes without saying that we are not entitled to more happiness than he actually is bearing himself, because of us!
That means that deep sorrows, sent by him, are to be expected in our lives.
“Everything that comes our way in this life, good and bad, comes from him”, God says in the bible, in ……….. and “Blessed are those whom God brings on them sorrows, mourning, hunger and crying in this life”.
( Matthew 5: …)
We may not like it, but he allows all that for our good, especially for those of us who respond positively to such treatment…Let us believe him when he says that he actually suffers and cries with us when he brings unpleasant experiences our way!
So, let us not blame him for our woes, but let us rather put the blame on man’s rebellion towards his Creator which forced him to resort to such necessary methods that cause us much suffering, even on his beloved children…
In the Old Testament, God often likens himself to a husband who profoundly loves his wife! When she stops loving him and trying to pease him…his whole world falls apart, and he lives with a broken heart, full of pain.
No wonder his feelings for his children fluctuate between expressions of love, and willingness to forgive us, but also with accusations, feelings of being let down, of anger, threats and wrath!
It is difficult to study seriously the Bible and not get affected by the many reprimands that God addresses to his children, particularly to his favourite, chosen people, the nation of Israel, and by extension also to us, followers of Jesus.