Hi Maria,

I understand your overarching point. But reading your post made me think, “How do we reconcile this with Job?”

You say:
To say that it is His will that evil comes near us to “teach us a lesson” is simply unscriptural. If we are abiding in and submitting our lives to God, then it is His pleasure to bless us.

Job was abiding and submitting to God. Look at the terrible things he endured over an extended period of time. Most people would buckle under that. Yet, God explicitly allowed it. We don’t have to wonder if he allowed it. The Bible tells us that God gave permission for it to happen to Job.

You say:
Also, God is a GOOD FATHER, better than any earthly father. What earthly father would want or cause evil to happen to their child in order to teach them a lesson or allow it in order to work something out in their child. That is simply not scriptural.

Would it be your stance that God did not ALLOW all Job (His righteous child) went through to happen? Further, would it be your stance that God did not teach Job some things/lessons in all of this? Or that God did not “allow it in order to work something out in His child.” In reading the book of Job, I believe that is precisely what He did.

I really love you as a sister in the Lord and have been following your blog for about a year now…but, I humbly say that I disagree with this premise:
“Realize that nothing ever happens without it being under God’s control. He’s either chosen or allowed it for a purpose.”

Please give me scripture that states God is in control of everything on earth and allows things to happen for a purpose. This is an unbiblical belief that the church has wrongly adopted – maybe to release people from their sinful choices?

The bible clearly states that Satan is the Prince of the Power of the Air of this world: Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”

Did God sovereignly choose for me whether I ate corn flakes or oatmeal this morning? No, I chose. That’s a simple analogy, but in fact, God gave us free will to choose life (submitting to God) or death (submitting to satan)

Wherever people are yielding to God’s will (thy kingdom come, thy will be done), then God is given permission to rule and reign in that area of their lives. Wherever Jesus is Lord of someone’s life, then they are submitted to God’s will and receive the blessings accordingly.

Where someone chooses the sinful “wide path”, God relinquishes control and gives them over to a “rebrobate mind”. God will NOT force His control on those that turn their backs on Him…including Christians that disobey God’s will. For example, if the Lord is speaking to someone’s heart, let’s say for example, to not drive down that road, but yet the Christian simply ignores that “check in their spirit”, then they have turned their heart away from God and allowed the enemy to ride in on that disobedience. Then if/when that person finds themself in a bad situation on that road (i.e. car surrounded by an angry mob), it is NOT God’s will for the evil to befall that person. God was trying to warn them, but they shut Him out and the result was a negative consequence…NOT from the Lord, but from the pit of hell. God was NOT trying to teach that person a lesson. That is simply not scriptural.

Also, God is a GOOD FATHER, better than any earthly father. What earthly father would want or cause evil to happen to their child in order to teach them a lesson or allow it in order to work something out in their child. That is simply not scriptural.

God does NOT temp anyone to do evil, nor does it please Him (as our Heavenly Father) that evil may befall us. Evil befalls us IF we are out of God’s will. The evil in this world was NOT brought by God. God is not “in control” of everything that goes on on this earth. That is a lie from the pit of hell.

To say that it is His will that evil comes near us to “teach us a lesson” is simply unscriptural. If we are abiding in and submitting our lives to God, then it is His pleasure to bless us.

Choosing to follow after our flesh or the “wide path” of this world completely opens up our lives to the works of the devil. That is OUR CHOICE, NOT GOD’s!

To clarify, this is not to say that God isn’t Sovereign. Of course He is. But, again, He has given us free will to choose Him (life) or Satan/flesh (death). He will not force us to choose either, but it is his WILL that ALL be saved.

Why does evil happen in the world? Because satan is the ruler of it – the prince of the power of the air. But, we do not have to be subjected to it if we walk close to the Lord and LISTEN to His warnings.

I pray that someday the church will stop blaming God for “allowing” evil to come to His children. That is NOT His will, nor is it scriptural.

I’m looking forward to the day that a new heaven and a new earth will manifest… 🙂

God richly bless you as you ponder what I’ve written.