Having a Healthy Argument
With God
| If you accept my words
and store up my commands within you, . . . applying your heart to understanding,
and if you call out for insight . . . and search for it as for hidden treasure,
then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of
God. Prov. 2:1-5, NIV. |
For five years
I watched my mother slowly die from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),
a disease that gradually degenerates the motor neurons, causing paralysis.
Although the motor (movement) nerves are dying, the sensory (feeling) nerves
continue to function, so every movement someone makes with their body causes
excruciating pain. There is no cure. For the person with ALS it is like
living in a glass coffin. Their mind is sharp, but their body becomes completely
paralyzed, until they finally die of suffocation when the diaphragm stops
functioning.
Watching my mother die this hideous
death made me so angry. I prayed for her healing. When that didn't come,
I prayed for God to take away her pain. And when that didn't happen, my
faith faltered. How could a "loving" God permit such suffering? My mom
had done so much good, especially for blind children, so how could God
arbitrarily strike her down? Then I thought of Uzzah. He was only trying
to stabilize the ark. Why did God strike him dead when he touched it?
One day when I was desperate, broken,
and unable to go on, I opened my dust-covered Bible and read Isaiah 43:25,
26, in which God says, "I . . . am he who blots out your transgressions,
for my own sake. . . . Review the past for me, let us argue the matter
together" (NIV).
I began searching the Scriptures
for answers and arguing with God. Then I thought about the parent who tells
a child, "Don't touch the stove; you'll get burned." When the child disobeys
and gets burned, is it the parent who burned the child? No! And then it
became clear to me. God didn't kill Uzzah. God knew His glory would destroy
sinful human beings, and because the ark was filled with His glory, He
in love warned them not to touch the ark. Uzzah disobeyed and suffered
the natural consequence.
As I began to see pain and death
as a consequence of sin, and not something caused by God, I began to trust.
Now I know that God has the answers to our pain and confusion, if we'll
just reason with Him as He asks us to do.
| If you're confused about what has happened
or what is happening to you or to someone you love, argue with God. His
Scriptures and His Holy Spirit can provide incredible healing insight. |
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