This morning’s devotional took me to the Psalms, specifically to chapters 42 to 44. The writer is full of lament, wondering why God has forsaken him, and why God seems to be sleeping, in spite of the writer’s soul panting for Him.
It reminds me of how humankind has always searched for God when things go badly. If we suffer, if we lose love, if there is a catastrophe of sorts, somehow that means that God isn’t there; and either He doesn’t exist, He needs to be blamed, or He has neglected His duties. The Psalms are a constant litany of pleading and praise. Where’s God? Oh, He’s here and He forgives me of my sins, saved us from war, etc, praise God!
Do we search for God when things go well? Do we praise Him and give Him the credit for a life well lived? Rarely, at least I forget to. The trend of gratitude journaling amongst the journal crowd, of which I am one, has us writing down what we are grateful for on a daily basis. This however tends to be a generic thankfulness about something or someone that we are grateful for, but often God gets left out of it. He rarely gets the credit.
Wars, pandemics, and fear, those are something that bring people to God. Or at least it makes us search for meaning in the chaos. The modern trend of “being a spiritual person” has us looking inward, finding our own god within, and finding peace within the “goodness”. These abstract ideas take us further from the true God, the God of the Bible, the one who works everything for the good of those who are called for HIS (emphasis mine) purpose (Romans 8:28).
So, what is His purpose for us? I believe that His purpose is for us to follow Him, repent of our sins, and preach His redemptive love to all those we can. We exist for His will, not ours. Our idea of “good” is different from His, because He can see the beginning and the end, and He knows it ends well…according to His purpose. He uses the bad and the truly ugly to bring us to repentance, to bring us to our knees beseeching for forgiveness, for love, for truth, and for an eternity with Him. We will not find it within ourselves. We are born sinners, and we will die as sinners unless God intervenes and calls us to Him.
He gives us everything we need to find Him, and to live on this earth with His help. He has given us His Word and the Holy Spirit. We just need to seek.