From “Growing in the character of a disciple”: Chapter 3 – Cultivate the attitude of thankfulness until it is a habit
When we complain and grumble we can get to the point where we are actually blaming or accusing God for things. We might not say it out loud, but that could be what we are really thinking. Whenever we do that we are deluded. God is never to blame for anything, no matter what it is, or how it happens. Whatever you may have experienced, He is not at fault for it. God is perfect. He never does anything wrong or unjust. It is an impossibility, and we are foolish even to entertain the idea.
Therefore, don’t even consider criticising God or lashing out at Him. Don’t even do it indirectly or by implication. You would be accusing the wrong person. If you have been blaming Him, then you have been falsely accusing the best friend you’ve ever had. Far from being the cause of your problems, He is your closest ally. He cares for you more than anybody else, no matter how bad your circumstances may be. He has a plan for each of us which is for our good, not to harm us:
For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 (RSV)
Job had to suffer more testing than any of us are ever likely to face. He lost all his children and all his possessions in one day. Yet, he refused to blame God for it. That fact warmed God’s heart because, although Job never knew it, the very reason he had lost everything was because the Devil had challenged God to test Job. Satan had said that if He did, then Job would curse God to His face. But Job didn’t. He refused to blame God. That needs to be our attitude too:
20Then Job arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell upon the ground, and worshiped. 21And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return; the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” 22In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Job 1:20-22 (RSV)
At the end of the book of Job, God Himself speaks in response to the various explanations of his sufferings that had been put forward by Job’s friends, and even by Job. The things they said did not accurately reflect the true facts, or represent God’s actual views or motives. We all need to be so careful, because we are very limited in our understanding. We can only grasp parts of what is really going on at times.
We would therefore be seriously at fault if, with our severely limited minds and incomplete knowledge, we tried to be too emphatic about things we don’t understand and which only God can. In particular, we must never speak, or even think, in such a way as to suggest that He is at fault, because He never is. If we think He is, we are just wrong and foolish, no matter what the circumstances may be:
6Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm: 7“Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. 8 “Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself ? 9 Do you have an arm like God’s, and can your voice thunder like his?
Job 40:6-9 (NIV)
