Love

"Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers..."  I get this I think to some degree.  Like when I prayed to win the lottery or for my teenage boyfriend to stick around forever - those were the prayers I know were best unanswered. And I see why now, and I can trust the sovereignty of God when I look back because He did indeed knew best. What's hard though is when you pray for someone to be healed and they die. Or when you pray for peace and wars break out or tsunamis and hurricanes wreck havoc.  What then? Why, God?  It's harder to believe He is good and in control then.  Most of the questions I hear from people who do not yet know their Creator sound something like this: "If God is so good and all powerful, then why does all the bad stuff happen? Why all the murders, rapes, injustice, hunger, disease and death? Why wars and natural disasters when He can just say the word and it not be so?"

The best way to begin explaining and answering questions starts with this: God works all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Do you love God? Then He is working EVERYTHING out for you benefit. Do you not yet know God? Then He is waiting for you to surrender yourself over to Him and realize and confess your love for Him so everything then can be working out for your best interest too! He wants none to perish or have a hard life- Jesus came so we can have a more abundant life, for a chance to experience heaven on earth. First thing's first - Know God. Believe Him. Love Him. Trust Him.  Bad things will happen, and it's inevitable they do.  The difference maker will be the peace within. When we better understand the goodness of God and His loving nature, we will be better equipped for bad news.

About the bad news... Look at it from a new perspective: We indeed live on a fallen planet ruled by the Prince of Darkness who stole the deed from Adam who was the initial ruler of the earth. The LORD tried to use His chosen people, the Jews, to live blamelessly by His law as an example to the rest of the world of what a free life can look like. But people of the world were puppets to the evil king already, and they made it hard for the Jews to obey fully. Israel could not uphold God's law and they kept disobeying and putting Him aside despite the miracles and the prophets He sent.

All along, God wanted a big family with people from all ends of the world.  He saw no one worthy to buy the deed to the world back, so He humbled Himself and entered the world as a human through Mary.  That's how much He loves us and could not stand any longer to see us throw our lives away to sin and damnation.  As the only begotten Son by the Holy Spirit Himself, Jesus worked tirelessly telling parables, doing miracles, healing, rebuking demons and teaching like no one before or since. He wanted people to get who He was and why He came, especially His disciples, so they can spread the news that redemption is here! He lived a blameless life so that He can fulfill His purpose - buy the sons of the world back and bring them back to God. He also went to hell and back and got the deed to our planet. Now He could have called it a good day and ended God's plan, but many, many people had not yet come to know Him. It would not have been a good deal for them.  God wants heaven full of people!  And He had so much more planned for this world - duh - we haven't been born yet :)

So, through His people - our heavenly Father has been trying to spread the Good News of the Gospel - confess with your mouth and believe in your heart Jesus is who He says - Lord of Lords and King of Kings who lived and died for us.  Why?  Because He does not want ANYONE to perish into a cursed eternity where they would spend just that long paying for their sins. Hell was created for the devil and his followers. His original plan and the world He created had no sin and was what we today refer to as "Paradise." That was God's intention for this earth, but the devil played Adam and Eve so cunningly, that Paradise was lost. The earth begin to deteriorate and people experience all sorts of discomfort, pain and suffering. What once was a representation of heaven on earth - where the two worlds intersected and you could see things like knowledge and the spiritual realm, has now become a far cry form that, yet we have somehow shifted the blame on God for "ruining our lives" and "allowing disasters to strike."  Our first pair of lovers was tricked and lured into disobeying the perfect will of God - and once sin entered, the downward spiral began.

So, to those who wonder why God seems absent or like He could care less about the deaths, disease, and hunger - think again.  Think for yourself.  Do not let the Deceiver lie to you any longer. Do not continue blaming the One through Whom ALL blessings flow. He is waiting to restore this earth at the appointed time when all will be as it should be. No tears, no sorrow, and death will be no more. A greater Paradise awaits when heaven and earth will finally be as one. The job of those of us who are His children are to show a little bit of this heaven to the world. To expose the truth and the lies. Our job is to be His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Our job is to tell the world that Jesus lives and that their Father in Heaven is for them and always has been and always will be. Our mission is to show hope, kindness and peace and joy and gentleness, and self-control and patience, goodness, faithfulness, and Love. Yes, Love. The Greatest of these is Love.  The world will know who we are by the Love we show. The world will know their Loving Father by the Love we show. Love indeed makes the world go 'round, and it's all we need.