“Is God In Charge?”

If you’re a student of the Bible, you may remember the passage, “God is made in our image and likeness“; I think it’s from the Book of Hezakiah. Because of this, it’s really not that important what we believe and how we act… but it is important that I’m nice and that God agrees with me and does what I want. God is like Santa Claus; I give him my list of what I want to have happen and he needs to do it.  But when he doesn’t do what I want, then I’m not happy with God and maybe I don’t believe in him as much.” 

I hope you noticed that the passage above and the interpretation is not from  the Bible and that there is no book of Hezekiah. (Sorry for the confusion.) 

Nevertheless, it seems like many people can act like this is the truth about God. I can sometimes get lulled into thinking that this is how everything works or should work. When bad things happen, can I tend to blame God? When I ask God for this or that, for a healing , for a new job, that my children act right, that I win the lottery and it doesn’t happen…. do I get “bummed out” with God? “I prayed and God didn’t answer my prayer; what’s wrong with God?

Actually the correct biblical passage is:  “God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Gen. 1:26) God is not Santa Claus. God is God! We are meant to find out his will and obey; it’s not the other way around. It’s summarized pretty well in the Book of Job when God speaks to Job after Job does a bit of complaining. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.  Who determined its measurements–surely you know!” (Job 38:4-5) In his best impersonation of Ralph Kramdon in the Honeymooners TV Show, Job answers “ A humma – humma – humma- humma”. Actually when God continued, “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” Then Job answered the LORD: “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.” (Job 40:1-5)

Sometimes when we ask God for something, he says NO. We may ask again and he still says NO. “But Lord, it’s a good thing and I prayed and I really want it”, but the answer is still NO. What is our response now? Do we question whether God really loves me, or that he is really good? Does he have the power? God is God and sometimes he says no to our request and sometimes he doesn’t make it clear why he said no. Hmmmmmm. Does this cause my faith to weaken? 

In truth, sometimes God’s answers don’t make sense to us….at least not at the moment. Sometimes God’s answer is not YES, not NO, but LATER. The time is not right.

It’s really important that we remember who God is… he’s God and he doesn’t answer to me. Thankfully we can always be confident that God is love and that he loves me (and you) and that ultimately we will see the blessing in God’s answers. Almighty and all powerful and loving God, help us to submit our lives to you and learn to trust in your goodness and your mercy, and in your answers. And that will be very good news.