May 2011 Spill the Beans

You Ask It, I'll Answer It  

Question:

My son is a doctor and he said, "God gets too much credit."  Reasoning, if God gets the credit for healing cancer, who gave the patient cancer in the first place?  What is your opinion of his reasoning?

 

Answer:

Wow!  Do you want an answer or a book?  My answer will not do justice to the depth of this question, but I will offer a consideration to think about. 

 

Your son is a bright man with a reasonable consideration!  This is a hard question because it represents a hard reality we all live with.  We want a God who heals and delivers, but we don't want a God who sends or allows disease or hardship.  So, how do we reconcile the mystery of God's activity?   To me, I find comfort in His sovereignty.  In Isaiah 45:7, God says, "I am the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these."

 

In Exodus 4:11, God said to Moses, "...Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute?  Who gives him sight or makes him blind?  Is it not I, the Lord?"

 

In those verses, I don't hear God denying responsibility and simply demanding credit.  He seems to acknowledge His role in allowing or sending, as well as removing or delivering. 

 

I believe sovereignty is a place to deposit our questions.  We may not find satisfying answers, but we will find something more satisfying...an intimate, more secure relationship with God Himself.  When I rest in His mysterious sovereignty, I realize that just because God allows or sends doesn't mean He is acting thoughtlessly toward us.

 

The Psalmist acknowledged, "You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance."  (Psalm 66:11, 12)

 

Maybe another question we could ask is....what if those hard things are the very things He uses to bring us to a place of deliverance?  If so, does He not deserve credit for all?

 

Job said it best when he uttered, "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD." (Job 1:21)

 

I don't really have good answers...I just try to have faith in God.  I am learning that faith isn't intellectual compromise, it's human concession.   Someone much wiser than I once penned, "God is too wise to be mistaken. God is too wise to be unkind. When you can't trace His hand, that's when you must learn to trust His heart." Charles Haddon Spurgeon

 

May all our pondering end in praise, just like Job.
 
And now the beans are officially spilled.

 

 

 

Comments

[Tara Smith]

I think too often we do forget to give credit to the Doctors, but even in giving credit to Doctors, I am a firm believer that God heals through medicine. He has given us the capability to acquire knowledge. Without God the docotrs would not be able to do what they do, or know what they know.

[Tina]

I wholeheartedly agree with everything in this article!!!