Here was the most helpful part of the chapter for me:
"God formed the earth... He did not create it to be empty but formed it to be inhabited." Why did God do all this? Why did he bother to go to all the trouble of creating a universe for us? Because he is a God of love. This kind of love is difficult to fathom, but it's fundamentally reliable. You were created as a special object of God's love! God made you so he could love you. This is a truth to build your life on.
It's not uncommon for me to beat myself up due to my failures, my weaknesses, my shortcomings. I've got my own list of sins that stir up shame and guilt. Sometimes I pay too much attention to what isn't right in my life. And then I feel powerless to change. Which only makes the despair more heavy. But... if I let myself remember God's perspective on my situation and me... I don't have to stay so glum.
God knows me, he knows everything that has ever happened to me, he knows why it happened, he knows what is going on in my life now because of everything that has shaped me. He knows where this stuff is taking me in the future. But he doesn't just sit there with a knowing smirk. God has got his sleeves rolled up, working in me and with me and through me to bring good out of everything that has ever happened to me and by me. Why does he do this? This is what love does. This is what God does.
God loves me just the way I am, but he loves me too much to leave me this way. I am not an accident in God's eyes, I am someone he can use to fulfill his redemptive and renewing purposes in our world.
What about you? What convicted or inspired you in the reading today?
4 comments:
My only concern about that chapter is thatit says, "GOD chooses the exact time of your birth and death". So, what I struggle with is why do people die in car accidents; get cancer and die etc.? If GOD chooses when we die, then he must choose how we die?
tiggerwood@verizon.net
As I read this chapter I realized that I dont have to have someone elses approval for who Iam. God made me the way he wants me and if others dont accept me for who Iam that is ok. Iam the person that God made me to be.
"If God chooses when we die, then he must choose how we die?"
Very good question, a very valid concern. You're not alone in your struggle to understand that idea about God and death.
With this book, I think Rick Warren gets a lot of things right. There is much wisdom and helpful insights that he has included in this book. But, I'm not sure I agree 100% with everything he writes, and some of it is open to debate.
There are some people who can use Scripture to back up the idea that you quoted above. And other people can show that Scripture makes a slightly different point.
From my point of view, it's not clear in Scripture that God chooses when or how we die. God may know it, or see it coming far in advance, but I'm not as confident as Warren is in saying God chooses it.
All that to say, the bigger point that I think matters most is this: our life is best lived in God's hands. Life is a gift from God, and living out His Way leads to the most Glory for Him and the most Joy for us.
Does that make sense? What do you think?
I agree. I know in philosophy and religion classes, this issue of death and bad things happening in general was a huge disussion and it came down to the facts of 1. God is all knowing. He knows when you will die and 2. He gave us free will. There are some things that we won't know for certain until we can ask our creator ourselves and this question is one of them, but for me, it's always reassuring to know that God loved us enough to let us choose for ourselves the paths we want to take in life. He has the power that he could mandate everything; He could force us to love Him, but He doesn't. And in that regard, oftentimes, we die at our own hands, or the hands of others, such as car accidents, diseases from alcohol or tobacco, drug overdoses, etc. and to some extent, even things we don't understand, like cancer or genetic disease, can be contributed to mankind. God made Adam and Eve perfect, but gave them free will. As they chose to disobey, sin, pain, hurt, and all those things came as a consequence.
But I do find it reassuring to know that God has shaped me, molded me, and continues to do so to make me a person who can serve Him and serve others, and if I ask Him to be in control of my life, to guide me, he will gladly take the reign.
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