Faith Talk Help!
Is this really the will of God?
In times of pain, suffering, and hardship it is only natural to question God's will for our life. I often find myself being one of the disciples on the boat during the storm, panicking for my life, forgetting the creator of the Heavens and the Earth is present with me.
God is in control.
God's will is being done.
This week, I want to provide a few points to help you talk about the will of God with your children. These points come from a paper I wrote entitled "The Questionable Will of God: The Will of God in Light of Suffering." I do not have the space to go over all the points in the paper. However, you may read it here. If your child or you, yourself, are currently wrestling with God's will, goodness, and evil in the world in light of the tragedy we have experienced I would encourage you to read the paper for help forming a biblically based theodicy.
God's will consist of three parts. God's IDEAL will, his CIRCUMSTANTIAL will, his ULTIMATE will. God's ideal will was that all men and women will come into a relationship with him (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:3-4). Man broke God's ideal will of relationship by sin (Genesis 3; Romans 3:23; 5:12-21). As a result of defeating God's ideal will, his circumstantial will was brought about. This will is that all man-kind will come into a relationship with him through Jesus Christ the righteous. It is in this aspect of his will that God defeated what humans defeated his ideal will with. (John 3:16-17; Ephesians 2:3; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10). However, man can defeat this will by rejecting Christ. Therefore, God's ultimate will is in place for Christ return. It is this aspect of God's will that executes final reward and punishment upon the righteous and wicked (Matthew 25:31-46; Luke 16:19-31; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Hebrews 9:27).
God's will is relationship with his creation. Evil is present as a result of providing the opportunity to choose to do good. God is still omnipotent (all powerful), but God is all powerful to do those things that logically lend themselves to being done. Therefore, removing evil and sin is not logically possible because in so doing you remove the free-will choice to love God and do good. God created us to choose love, not force us to love for that is not love at all.
In your conversations with your children this week look for opportunities to show how God's power is providing opportunities to choose love, do good, and grow in his circumstantial will.
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