Is God In Control?

I keep hearing people talk about God being in control. Something bad happens and people say “Don’t worry, God is in control”. Your kids gets sick, you lose your job or your house burns down – what is the first thing people will tell you? “God is in control”. What on earth does that even mean?  Have you ever had something horrible happen and your friends and family are trying to help you and make you feel better, but when someone says that, it doesn’t help me feel any better at all. As a matter of fact it actually makes me feel worse.

Meaning
We need to take a second look at that and figure out what it actually means and at what they are implying when they say that. They are trying to imply that God is in charge and there is always a part of it that says that God is using it for something good. I don’t like that concept at all. It doesn’t sound like the God I know. Does that mean that the bad stuff was part of some master plan God has? If you’re in control, doesn’t that mean you’re running the show and and got it all covered? When I hear someone say that God is in control, then it even makes me question whether or not we have free will.

Free Will
And if I have free will and can chose to do good or chose to do bad, then other people have that same choice. If someone else chooses to do something bad, then God wasn’t in control of that. We can’t blame God for the bad. But if God wasn’t in control of the bad, then we can’t just arbitrarily say that God is in control. We have to discern that God is involved in life, and to what extent He is involved and chooses to take control. I believe that God is all powerful and can chose to do whatever He wants, whenever He wants. But when He is letting humans make choices, both good and bad, then He is waiting and watching and my guess is that He would often be shaking His head in disbelief. Here are some thoughts that I wonder if God might be thinking: “Why do these humans keep on choosing to reject me and throw away all of the good stuff that I’ve given them. Why can’t they grasp that I love them and want to have a perfectly close relationship with them. Why can’t they understand, that just as it started for Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, I want that for all of mankind and womankind. To spend time walking and talking in the Garden. To give us the opportunity to enjoy My creation and all of the great things it offers, and just relish the thought of us spending our lives together. Why can’t we all just get along? Love. My Love. That all they need to get.”

Well in my mind none of that fits with what I know about God. The one thing that I think everyone would agree on is that God Is Love. If God is Love, then He wants good things for us, right?

And what if God weren’t love? Well that just doesn’t work at all. there’s no reason that any part of the Bible would be true then. If God isn’t love, then He would be so unpredictable and self focused that life just wouldn’t make any sense at all. God Is Love!

Next Section
Check out the next section that will talk about If God isn’t “In control”, does that mean that He is “out of control”?

Religion Is Not What is started Out To Be

Religion just simply what is was supposed to be. Religion was the pursuit of a spiritual relationship and someone was considered religious when their life was focused primarily on spiritual matters. But religion has become a chore, an obligation and a duty. It’s not something done out of passion and love for a higher being, but rather a self serving and self focused action to gain favor from a god. Going to church is about appeasing a god who has nothing to do with the rest of our life.

I think that avoiding religion altogether seems like a good plan. But not avoiding God. God still is real, even though religion has been corrupted and commercialized and become a money gaining venture. God still wants to have a relationship with you and wants you to care about Him too.

Can you Avoid Religion and go to Church?
I bet there are some churches that are not caught up in religion. If your church happens to be one of the very few that have figured out how to have some organized structure and not lose focus of what really matters (or rather Who really matters) then count yourself very fortunate and celebrate each time you enter the church and relate to your church family. Enjoy developing a better connection with God while on the journey with other people. Most of the time, going to church is a big part of religion. And that does not impress God. He isn’t too keen on people showing up at a building and performing a certain routine once a week. Pretty meaningless and empty.