Beware of Blaming God

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior..." -Isaiah 43

When we face trials, difficulties, and pain, we often have as our reaction an accusatory posture toward God. Surely He has abandoned me to deal with this on my own and forgotten what I need, we say. In the fieriest moment of trial, it is easy to feel so overwhelmed that it seems absolutely plausible that God does not love us enough to intervene, that He is not powerful enough to intervene, or even that He does not exist. When dark doubts like these assail us, we often feel justified in accusing God. We tell God that we know better than Him, that we know our needs better than He does. Even at our lowest points, our pride finds a way to emerge and rebuke the King of the universe.

When we are blinded by pain and difficulty, it can seem that there is no way out, that it will never improve. We lose perspective. Yet God holds true to His promises whether we believe them at the time or not. He is the Author of reality and our flawed, emotion-colored perceptions cannot do a thing to change that. There is rarely an immediate answer to our question of why but we need not be without Someone to cling to. To those who love Him, God promises that He will be ever-present in the fiery trials of life.

To carry us and to be with us in the middle of the fire, God has to feel the flames Himself. There is no other way. When we feel the pain of the fire, so does He. When we suffer, so does He. But by His unfathomable love, He carries us because the flames make us stronger if we face them with Him. James 1 says that the testing of our faith produces perseverance which, in turn, makes us mature in Christ.

When facing overwhelming tribulation, do not blame God as if He has abandoned you without a way out. In so doing, we cause God even more pain. God does not promise to spare us of trials, but He does promise to go with us through them and to bring us through them victoriously if we rely on Him and submit to Him. Consider it pure joy.

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I'm not a huge fan of blogs but I figured I'd share some thoughts I have as they come up. What will follow won't be about me. I should start by saying that I'm 22 years old and by no means have experienced much in life or have gained much wisdom. However, I pray that you are encouraged by the words here and if no one ends up reading this, it'll be fun to look back through the magic of the interwebs on what God has been teaching me. Feel free to comment.

-Jared