Lord, when you said to me, “Seek my face,” my inner being responded: I’m seeking your face with all my heart. Psalm 27:8 (TPT)

I Don't Believe – Present Series – Part 5

Go to PART 1  |  PART 2  |  PART 3  |  PART 4  |  PART 5

REFLECTION:

One of the big questions I have about the presence of God, is this:

If God is in all things and through all things, does he also “cause” all things? I’ve come to believe that he doesn’t. I don’t think he gave my friend terminal brain cancer in our early twenties. I don’t believe he creates rapists and murderers. And I don’t believe that he intends for those acts to be carried out on people. I don’t believe that he manipulates the circumstances of war and violence, and I don’t believe that he is behind the treachery of governments.

But somehow, he can still be found IN these moments and spaces. Transcendent and present in a supernatural and miraculous way. But even then, I have questions around why he doesn’t stop things from happening… does he let them? Allow them? Sign off on them cos he knows we can handle them? Try telling an abused child, a betrayed father, a beaten mother, a suicidal young adult, a teen with a terminal disease, that “God only gives us what we can handle.”

There’s gotta be more to it than that. And I’ll spend life exploring the possibilities. What do you think? Let us know by heading to our website pktfuel.com or emailing us at talktous@pktfuel.com

In “Telling Secrets” Frederick Buechner (you must know by now how much I love this guy…) said:

“As I understand it, to say that God is mightily present even in such private events as these does not mean that he makes events happen to us which move us in certain directions like chessmen. Instead, events happen under their own steam as random as rain, which means that God is present in them not as their cause but as the one who even in the hardest and most hair-raising of them offers us the possibility of that new life and healing which I believe is what salvation is.”

The Divine is present to heal and restore. Present even in the harshest, remote, hideous and ridiculous spaces of our lives. And in the good ones, too. Salvation is healing: the transcendent presence of God in, through and beyond our lives.

Prayer:

May you look for and find God all around you, within you, and even beyond you, in unexpected places and people. Take a moment, be content with where you are and what you have. Be thankful. Breathe. Stop and listen for his whisper; you never know where you’ll hear it.

“Lord, when you said to me, “Seek my face,” my inner being responded: I’m seeking your face with all my heart.” Ps 27:8 (TPT).

Over to you. Leave us your comments below.

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