Because the simple truth is that God is not in control of humans. We are spirit beings who have a soul and live in a body. We live on a planet that is still cursed by and with sin…and chocolate. And excess. And free will. The free will to choose, the free will to speak, the free will that brings its consequences in the natural world.
Deuteronomy 30:15 (after Deuteronomy 28, that famous blessing/cursing chapter) is where God said “I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose life.” God gave people free will to choose. Choose anything and everything. God has not made a single choice for us.
God has prepared life for us. He has preserved His written Word over thousands of years so we can make informed choices. He sent His word in the flesh, in the form of our Lord and Savior Jesus, who is the Christ, so we can choose to know Him, and by doing so, choose life, like God said in Deuteronomy. Still, in a better covenant with better promises, we don’t always choose life.
Choosing death has become the norm in many cultures, including ours. Whether it’s our pre-born babies or our choice to reject Jesus as Savior, God has never removed our right to make our choices independent of Him.
It has become the religious mindset that when tragedy strikes or death steals, to blame God, even if we don’t realize that’s what we do when we say God is sovereign or He allows bad things to happen for our good. How confusing that is, to think sometimes God is the good Father and sometimes He kills people or allows them to die. God Himself said that we choose, not Him.
There is an enemy at work in this planet at this time. Jesus shed His blood to redeem the people of the earth. He has not redeemed the planet. God’s Word tells us there is a god of this world (2 Cor 4) who deceives and blinds people to keep them from knowing the truth, and by it, make decisions that choose spiritual death for them and their children.
Our choices affect our children. They see what we do. They hear what we say. Even in our natural lives, our up again/down again lifestyles cause confusion and an inability to trust, a lack of security in their young hearts. Do we teach them about God’s goodness when we say things like, “God took grandma to heaven”? If people are in Christ, Jesus receives them to the place He has said He prepared for them and they are in His presence instantly! John 10:10 clearly states in Jesus’ own words that the thief (satan) comes only to steal, to kill and to destroy BUT that Jesus has come to give us life, and that more abundantly. God is not a killer. He is Life. The words that He speaks are Spirit and they are life. God is not the controller of death. Sometimes our choices cause that. Sometimes our enemy is set to devour and to destroy us. We all have examples of where the enemy has been successful.
Where is hope then? It’s in Romans 10, verses 9, 10, and 13 and other scriptures. When we believe in our heart that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for our sins, that He was chastised that we can have peace, that He was crucified so we can be free from the curse of the law, (according to Isaiah 53 and Galatians 3:13) and when we confess that God raised Jesus from the dead, we can then have hope, because the Bible says that we are born again at that point we believe with our heart and confess with our mouth. We are then accepted in Christ, separated from the curse that came from disobedience, and we are no longer in bondage or blindness to sin or any other “thing”. What we learn is what we live. Choose to learn deliverance.
Do not place a false hope in the thought that God is in control of everything. That isn’t truth. That’s a “no fault religion” . We can hope in His Lordship. Confess Him as Lord. Hope comes when we surrender to His Lordship and put Him as head of our lives. Then will God be in control? The answer is still “no” because God will never force us to do His will, but “in Christ”, when Jesus is Lord, we choose life and all He gives with it. His protection, His provision, His Healing, His direction, His promises. Choose. You choose. It’s a personal choice. He already gave us the answer when He said, “Choose life”.
And occasionally, choose chocolate.
For His Glory 