Thursday, February 16, 2012

God is Present and Active in our Lives All the Time

One of the things that struck me is the point that the Biblical view is that God does not supersede the laws of nature, but that he is simply active in the world.  I don't remember the page number, but the authors said that to make the statement that God overturns the laws of nature implies that God is not normally active in his creation, which is more the result of enlightenment thinking rather than sound biblical theology.  The Bible simply demonstrates that God is active, whether it is in extraordinary ways, or more mundane ways.  This makes me think of places such as the story of Joseph, where he declares to his brothers that they meant it for evil when they sold him into slavery, but God meant it for good.  Or the time when Samson told his parents he wanted a foreign woman for his wife, and the text says that they did not know that it was of the Lord.  The Bible demonstrates that God raises up kings and brings them down.  The song of Hannah, and the song of Mary both declare God is involved in the affairs of the world.  Paul says in Colossions that not only did the Lord create all things, but all things hold together through him.  He is most definitely involved.  Perhaps only those with eyes to see and ears to hear can understand.   

I am still trying to get a handle on this in my own life.  I was brought up with the "God helps those who help themselves" or the "You have to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" mentality.  In other words, the only help from God we have is instruction that he gave a long long time ago in a book.  The orthodox teaching we received at the time was that God is no longer active today as we was long ago.  We prayed as though God would never actually do anything.  Having a "relationship" with God is what touchy feely people talked about, not intelligent rational Christians like us.  Fortunately, I think we today are moving away from this, I know I am.

No comments: