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What else is chosen?
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What else is a choice in love? Let's plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
When you go through divorce, there are times as a Christian it seems like God is absent. For me, it's normally when I'm at work and have nothing to keep my mind going and sadly, it goes downhill. Sometimes I think about matters with my ex and how she struggled with the question of love, including if I loved her. It was in some thinking that I reached a conclusion that relates to God as well.
I could always do more to show love. None of us do it perfectly. We are told love is a choice. If you want to love someone, you just do it. You don't worry about having a feeling or not. You just do it. That is true.
However, it is also a choice to choose to believe that you are loved by someone. This doesn't mean if you believe someone loves you, they do. Many a man has been disappointed after all thinking that the beautiful woman that he sees is madly in love with him as well. It does mean that if someone has shown you a loving attitude, you have to trust them by a choice that they genuinely love you, even if from a human perspective, and rightly so, that love is imperfect.
I thought about this with God recently as well. If I was someone who was doubting that God loved me, what more could He do for me to show me His love for me? Whatever else was done, if that was my requirement, would I not always ask for more? Would I not always insist that He go a bit further?
This kind of goes along with the problem of evil. We are told often that there is too much evil in the universe for there to be a good God. Okay. Well how much is too much? Is it that if there's 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust it's too much but 5 million would have been just fine? Do there need to be 20% less rapes and then it's okay? 15% less children being abused and God becomes a possibility then? This is something difficult if not impossible to quantify.
Isn't the problem of evil also when you get to it a trust problem? I don't trust that God could be a good God or a real God if this is how He runs the universe? Naturally, we assume that we know better and hey, who can blame us. We've got a great track record on knowing how best to handle our problems so many times. Right?
If we are struggling with the reality of if we are loved or not at times, the problem most likely lies with us. Now with people, I can understand questioning at times, but with God, it definitely lies with us. We also know if we're Christians how easy it is to lose sight. One moment, you're doing great and saying you will never doubt God again and lo and behold a week later.....Or you go through a hard time and think "I have learned my lesson on trusting God now" and yet again a week later....
Going through divorce, I do get it. When a central relationship in your life shatters violently, it does cause reverberations across the board. I notice now that generally, I have a much harder time trusting people than I did before. I look forward to a new relationship with eagerness and fear. In making big decisions, there's always a tendency to second guess myself now.
The thing I have to realize is that since I am loved by God, if I am loving Him back, which I strive for, all will work out somehow. God knows my desires and He knows how to provide for me. This isn't my story. It's His. I just play a bit part in it.
If you struggle with trust, I hope this helps you out also. This realization has been a good help to me as well. Sometimes we in the apologetics community can give an air of having it all together, which I think happens in ministry, but I have made it a point to want to make sure my audience knows I have struggles just like they do. Maybe they're not exactly the same, but they're struggles. I'm thankful many of my readers walk with me in them.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)
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What else is a choice in love? Let's plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
When you go through divorce, there are times as a Christian it seems like God is absent. For me, it's normally when I'm at work and have nothing to keep my mind going and sadly, it goes downhill. Sometimes I think about matters with my ex and how she struggled with the question of love, including if I loved her. It was in some thinking that I reached a conclusion that relates to God as well.
I could always do more to show love. None of us do it perfectly. We are told love is a choice. If you want to love someone, you just do it. You don't worry about having a feeling or not. You just do it. That is true.
However, it is also a choice to choose to believe that you are loved by someone. This doesn't mean if you believe someone loves you, they do. Many a man has been disappointed after all thinking that the beautiful woman that he sees is madly in love with him as well. It does mean that if someone has shown you a loving attitude, you have to trust them by a choice that they genuinely love you, even if from a human perspective, and rightly so, that love is imperfect.
I thought about this with God recently as well. If I was someone who was doubting that God loved me, what more could He do for me to show me His love for me? Whatever else was done, if that was my requirement, would I not always ask for more? Would I not always insist that He go a bit further?
This kind of goes along with the problem of evil. We are told often that there is too much evil in the universe for there to be a good God. Okay. Well how much is too much? Is it that if there's 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust it's too much but 5 million would have been just fine? Do there need to be 20% less rapes and then it's okay? 15% less children being abused and God becomes a possibility then? This is something difficult if not impossible to quantify.
Isn't the problem of evil also when you get to it a trust problem? I don't trust that God could be a good God or a real God if this is how He runs the universe? Naturally, we assume that we know better and hey, who can blame us. We've got a great track record on knowing how best to handle our problems so many times. Right?
If we are struggling with the reality of if we are loved or not at times, the problem most likely lies with us. Now with people, I can understand questioning at times, but with God, it definitely lies with us. We also know if we're Christians how easy it is to lose sight. One moment, you're doing great and saying you will never doubt God again and lo and behold a week later.....Or you go through a hard time and think "I have learned my lesson on trusting God now" and yet again a week later....
Going through divorce, I do get it. When a central relationship in your life shatters violently, it does cause reverberations across the board. I notice now that generally, I have a much harder time trusting people than I did before. I look forward to a new relationship with eagerness and fear. In making big decisions, there's always a tendency to second guess myself now.
The thing I have to realize is that since I am loved by God, if I am loving Him back, which I strive for, all will work out somehow. God knows my desires and He knows how to provide for me. This isn't my story. It's His. I just play a bit part in it.
If you struggle with trust, I hope this helps you out also. This realization has been a good help to me as well. Sometimes we in the apologetics community can give an air of having it all together, which I think happens in ministry, but I have made it a point to want to make sure my audience knows I have struggles just like they do. Maybe they're not exactly the same, but they're struggles. I'm thankful many of my readers walk with me in them.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)