Your relationship with God (part one)

May your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need (Psalm 79:8).

How do you feel about Jesus?  How would you describe your relationship with Him?  Certainly you respect Him.  Of course you are grateful for His mercy.  But how do you relate to Him personally?

Some people get angry with the Lord.  They don’t like how He’s doing His job.  They look at events in the news and ask ‘why, Lord?’ Why don’t You stop the bloodshed in the Middle East?  Why don’t You end the starvation in Africa?  Why don’t You fix our struggling economy?  Why do You let some species go extinct?  Why do You let hurricanes and wildfires rage out of control?  Why don’t You make the world safe and happy?

People who get mad at God feel that He owes us.  He is the Creator, so He has an obligation to fix problems as they occur.  Letting bad things happen isn’t right, isn’t fair.  I’ve heard more than one atheist who claimed they could never believe in a God who would let tragedy happen.

The thing is, God doesn’t owe us.  Think of it this way.  When you purchase something, the warranty is voided if you use it incorrectly, bang it around, or mess with how it works.  If you are careless or negligent, the manufacturer has no obligation to fix what you damaged.  So it is between us and God.  The Almighty created a world that was perfect in all respects, and gave it into our care free of charge.  But we have misused the world, abused each other, taken poor care of ourselves.  We have caused terrible damage to the environment, our fellow man and our own bodies because we are frequently thoughtless, impulsive, and selfish.  The perfect world of God’s creation is perfect no more; instead it is filled with violent weather and outbreaks of disease, bloody conflict and miserable poverty, heinous crime and unavoidable death.  It’s all our doing, individually and collectively—we have no right to expect God to step in and fix all the stuff that we have ruined.  We have no right to get mad at God for the misery we have caused. On the other hand, He has every right to be furious with us.  How wonderful to know that Christ chooses to offer us forgiveness instead.  That mercy ensures a blessed peace in heaven when we die. We don’t deserve it, so we ought to be immensely grateful for it.