How do I remain in His love?

Yesterday, I got a message from a friend, and her question spurred me to write this.

Do you ever question God? Like when my daughter asks me questions sometimes I don’t know the answers, and then I feel tangled up. Why does God send people to hell? If He is good, then why must I choose Him for things to be made right?

These questions are too big for me to answer, but I will ramble through some thoughts. God does not define good the way we define good. His goodness includes justice too. This does not answer the question of evil. The questions quickly narrow to two: Is God good? Then if He is, why does evil exist?

He is good, and He created good things, but somehow or another, evil still entered the world. I must say I have not wrestled with this question very much, so my answer may seem trite or even simplistic. But I think maybe evil exists because God made man in His own image. Because man is made in God’s image, we are different from the trees and the sun and the moon. We do not simply exist. We have been given a mind to think, a heart to feel, and a body to hold the essence of ourselves in. If God created us without these things, then I don’t think sin would have entered the world, because we would not have been able to listen, understand, or bend to the serpent’s evil leading.

He created us with the ability to choose Him for His own pleasure. It really is mind baffling to think about God creating me, you, all of us, for His pleasure. He surely does not need us for His pleasure, and He knew that to gain the pleasure of creating us, He would suffer the pain of crushing His son. God already had heavenly beings with Him to worship Him, but He wanted to share His love and His glory, so He created us.

Angels do not fellowship with Him, but we can. Weird, huh? We get to deeply know God. And while all of creation cries out to Him, we can be friends with Him, and know Him intimately. How can we know His goodness without the evils of the world? I don’t think we can. I don’t think God created evil so I could know Him better, but I am thankful that He suffers through the evil on my behalf. I am not always thankful that I can suffer through these things to know Him, but knowing Him is the best part of me.

Too, the Bible alludes to the fact that Satan is a fallen angel. We have no idea how it came to be that the angel fell or tried to become like God (at least if we do, I missed that part of bible training 😉 ). But he continues to build his kingdom through us. He is not on God’s side, but even he submits to God. Evil is here because of him.

I mean Jesus, who was God, did not consider Himself to be equal with God, and He lived this truth. I don’t think I am equal with God, but often I live my life like I think I am equal to God. Pride paves the way to separation from God. While I cannot speak of the place of hell very much, maybe it is enough of a torture to simply be removed from God, who is life.

As a human, who has sinned repeatedly and therefore, does not meet the requirements for heaven, God paved a way for me to enter when He created me, because of Jesus’s paying the price for my sins, so God’s Holy Justice could be served, and He would remain good. He would not be good if He was unjust.

As a citizen of this future home, I want all traces of the devil to be removed. If I might keep choosing his dominion over God’s, I want that removed from myself, because I want the hope of a place free of evil, free of sin, free of weeping, free of tears. I don’t want to see anyone enter hell, but if they choose Satan, then I don’t want them coming to ruin another Home where I could potentially truly be free. I am tired of the devil’s existence and antics.

The questions, the wrestling are part of the process of leaving the darkness behind and finding the light. Yes, I have questioned God. Yes, I still question God at times. I think it is good to question him, because questions help us to know others. I can know God better when I ask Him things, but I don’t think it is good to remain in the questions. Sometimes all the questions are tools from the enemy. He started the question asking in the first place. I think we have to choose to believe that God, Father/Jesus/Holy Spirit, is good, and the Bible says we can ask Him to help us believe. And we can know that Jesus and the Spirit are praying for His people.

How do I remain in His love? By continuing to believe that He is who He says He is, by being still, letting go of the questions, or holding the questions knowing that He is with me as I ask them (think Jacob), by trying to walk closer in obedience to Him even when I don’t understand the questions or the answers. I know, firsthand, the lifelessness of choosing to doubt. Remaining in doubt is a type of hell on earth. Faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. I know what it is like to feel like I don’t have any faith or hope to offer the Lord, so I can only say I sit with you in that. God loved me through my lack, and He will do the same for you.

Past posts that wrestle with similar questions: How to Ask the Right Questions to Stop Wrestling and How to Wrestle with God and Win