I was thinking about the fact that so many atheists claim to not believe in God because of the problem of evil in the world. They claim there is so much evil in the world, there cannot possibly be a God. Thus we’re just left with an evil world and no God.
What does it take to believe that there is a God who is truly good, despite the evil that we see and the fact that God is omnipotent?
What about all the evil in the world? Well, if God has a plan for us, then he might have reasons (for instance, free will) for allowing things to happen that we don’t understand. In fact, it may be that real good could not come in the world unless he let these things occur, as bad as they may be.
This still may not seem like enough to justify some of the cruelty, but God came down and became a human being and suffered the most cruel death possible so that we could know him. It shows he is willing to suffer with us. Then he rose from the dead to give us hope for life beyond death.
It may be he had to let Adam and Eve sin in order to create fully independent human beings. We choose then whether to depend on him, or make a life on our own with no God to hope for.
So many things we expect of believers, we don’t tend to think of God himself. Jesus says not to judge. But that is because we normal sinners are not to judge something we may be doing ourselves. Does God sin? Definitely not! But we have hope. “Therefore there is no condemnation for those who believe in Christ Jesus.” Proverbs 25:2 says ““It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.” So what treasures are God hiding?
God says to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Does God not do these things? God hides his love. Jesus says, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.” How many good works does God do all the time and takes no credit for them himself? The secret of life is God’s enormous love for us. It takes an opening of the eyes to see all the blessings in our lives. It’s true some lives are harder than others. But the real treasure is what is on the inside not the outside.
So I praise the Lord for all of my blessings! My boyfriend wakes up every morning and thanks God ahead of time for a great day and for all the wonderful blessings He has for him. Praise the Lord!
Christ-Triumphant 