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From: ken@gitpyr.UUCP (Ken Hall)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: It's fun watching God answer prayers ---
Message-ID: <992@gitpyr.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 7-Nov-85 10:25:54 EST
Article-I.D.: gitpyr.992
Posted: Thu Nov  7 10:25:54 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 8-Nov-85 20:26:04 EST
References: <2402@cal-asd.fluke.UUCP> <395@pyuxn.UUCP>
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
Lines: 77
Summary: Answers to prayer

> 	A very close friend of mine's parents just went through a traumatic
> divorce. He prayed that both of them would continue their lives hereafter in
> a peaceful way, and find happiness in their separation. (He had been praying
> for them not to separate and then not to divorce for some time previous to
> this.) He also prayed that additional tragedy not befall their family.
> What has followed has been a bitter custody fight for the one child still
> living with his parents, severe problems with his sister's pregnancy, and his
> younger brother was in a severe accident owing to drinking while driving, and
> must (at the order of a judge) quit school in order to enter an alcohol
> rehabilitation program. (He HAD been a model student for many years.)
> 
> 	This is how God answers prayers.

Yes, it is all God's fault for the divorce and God's fault for the custody
fight and God's fault for the pregnancy problem and God's fault for the
younger brother's drinking accident.

We all assume that God does not answer our prayers when we get just the
opposite of what we pray for.

Do we know better than God?  Is He our servant to do as we demand and ask?
Is God the Great Santa Claus of the universe, sending nice presents and
gifts to those who are good and sticks and stones to those who are nauty?

Is God evil because we do not like the way things are going down here on
earth, or because things do not always turn out the way we want?

Is God to blame for a communications breakdown which leads to a divorce?
Is God to blame for not answering the prayer of a person who truly wishes
something good to happen, like a reconciliation, and lets the evil happen,
a divorce?

Can we, great and powerful men that we are, judge God and reduce Him to
something that we can manage and understand?

Of course we can!  We can do anything we want with our words and thoughts.
They are ours to manipulate as we see fit.

God doesn't seem to mind.         

We can write all that we want on this network and sit in judgement of
anyone, even God, and insult and belittle other people, and sit in
judgement of them, and feel very good about ourselves, thinking that
we have accomplished something.

I do it.  Others do it.  And you do it.

I think one of the great things about God is that He does not feel like
He has to vindicate Himself.  He is secure enough in Himself that He
does not need to defend Himself, and He surely doesn't need us to do 
it for Him.

We are fools if we think we can understand God and His ways here upon
earth.  It's like an ant trying to understand why man steps on his kin
folks.  There are lots of reasons.  But we err if we try to compare
man with the ants and God with man.  The analogy stops before it can
even begin.

The fact is, if God is God, omnipotent, omnipresent, omni-everything,
then we have no reason to think that we can understand Him and His
doings.  It is unreasonable to think that we can.

And to judge Him is even more unreasonable.

If God is less than omni-everything, as many hear affirm, they He is
not God, He is something else, a great power maybe, with both good and
evil intentions.  But don't call Him God.

If God is God, with all the attributes associated with such a being,
then humble your mind a little and don't think that you can judge Him
and the things that He does.  And don't be so hard on people who proclaim
His ideas.  We are all in this fish bowl together and have to live with
each other.

Be reasonable!

Ken Hall