Sometimes, the stories making headlines in the national news are so depressing that they can cause us to avoid watching. Recently, the murder trial of Steven Hayes in the rape and murder of a mother with multiple sclerosis, along with her 17-year-old and 11-year-old daughters, deeply affected the jurors, who referred to the trial as a life-changing experience. Similar to a soldier who never can get those bloody pictures of war from his memory, what those jurors had to both see and hear never will be forgotten. Hayes was convicted and given the death sentence. Can you imagine the difficulty for the surviving husband and father who escaped, while the rest of his family died? To hear the expert testimony discussing the rape of his 11-year-old daughter would require more strength than I even can imagine. Now his process begins again, as the accomplice of Hayes who planned the crime, Joshua Komisarjevsky, begins his trial.
Unlike Hayes, who as a lifelong criminal committed each dastardly act for drug money, Komisarjevsky is bright and articulate. Surprisingly, he grew up in a strong Christian household, regularly attending church with his devoted family. As a teenager, Komisarjevsky claims that he was raped by a foster child staying in his family’s home, and has blamed God for allowing that to occur. He claims that a loving God never would allow that kind of evil. Ironically, he attempted to prove that point by raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl. Regardless of his upbringing, evil rules his soul.
Certainly, these are extreme examples, yet all of us are affected by the evil of this world. Don’t forget, Satan has been given dominion over this earth for now and he would love to destroy each of us who have personal relationships with Jesus. Though God does not cause evil, He allows evil. Certainly, Job’s faith was tested when his 10 children died on the same day. God does not remove the hedge of protection between us and Satan to destroy us, but instead, desires for us to draw closer to Him. Often those difficulties reveal the status of our relationships with the Lord. Without enduring trials, our relationship may be only words, while being tested under fire strengthens us, just as heat strengthens metal.
A Christian brother forwarded an email to me discussing a Romanian who was suing God. It’s easy for us to blame God for our difficulties. Even Job, God’s most faithful servant upon the earth, played the “blame game.” Yet suing God is using God. To blame our Creator demonstrates a pride in our own knowledge and intelligence. Are you all-knowing, like God? Can you tell me what is going to happen 10 minutes from now, tomorrow, or 10 years from now? God never is surprised and has given us so many promises to stand on, including this one:
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28
Knowing that God is incapable of giving bad gifts to His children can carry us through the most difficult circumstances, yet our human nature can sometimes get in the way. C.S. Lewis, one of the most gifted Christian apologists, who certainly loved the Lord, had a desperate time in his relationship with God when his wife died of cancer. For a time, Lewis’ anger surpassed his trust of the Lord. But God in His mercy reached out to Lewis and pulled him closer before his own death. There are times when all of us question God!
Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:
2“Who is this who darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
3Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me.
4“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
5Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8“Or who shut in the sea with doors,
When it burst forth and issued from the womb;
9When I made the clouds its garment,
And thick darkness its swaddling band;
10When I fixed My limit for it,
And set bars and doors;
11When I said,
‘This far you may come, but no farther,
And here your proud waves must stop!’
12“Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
And caused the dawn to know its place,
13That it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
And the wicked be shaken out of it?
14It takes on form like clay under a seal,
And stands out like a garment.
15From the wicked their light is withheld,
And the upraised arm is broken.
16“Have you entered the springs of the sea?
Or have you walked in search of the depths?
17Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?
18Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth?
Tell Me, if you know all this.
Job 38:1-18
When God questions Job in Job 38-40, we see the futility of that lack of trust. Being a Christian does not come with a promise of a simple and carefree life upon this earth. Instead, it comes with the promise that God never will leave us or forsake us for all of eternity. When Stephen died the death of a martyr at the hands of those who hated him, God never left his side.
51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, 53 who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”
54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Acts 7:51-60
If your faith is lip service, then you are using God. He is an excuse in your life, rather than your life! Following God involves faith in the midst of hardship, yet His promises abound in the Bible. Rather than using God as a crutch or an excuse, if you are trusting in Him, then He is using you! Do you want to be used by God for His purposes? Trust Him and step out in faith!
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
Hebrews 11:1-3
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