New Year Eve Resolution: Get on God's Side, not Man's!

I had an interesting time of prayer on New Years Eve in 1992. Strangely enough God called me to get on His side! I was surprised at first. Then I realized that there was so much accusation (the work of the enemy) in my heart against God's goodness. I was accusing God of evil all the time in my heart and I didn't even know it. He called me to side with Him and not man who frequently uses his free will to do Satan's will instead of God's good will.

God says that He loves us in John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life."

Q: If this is the case why do we have such a hard time believing that?
A: Because lots (not all) of our experience in life is painful. Many experiences in life make us feel that God's doesn't love us.

However, we need to understand one thing:
            Man has produced the modern world. God created the planet and the life. Man created the culture.

• Did God come down and pollute the rivers, streams and oceans?

• Did God cut down the rain forests and pollute the air?

• Did God hunt specific animals to extinction?

• Did God come down and start wars?

• Did God withhold food from starving people?

The answer is NO. People have polluted and destroyed the earth by daily selfish choices. People involved in governments, businesses and organizations have started wars. They have wanted revenge, money or other's  lands or possessions... and so we kill. God made the planet able to produce crops to feed the whole population. No one ever needs to starve. But people who put governments together one step at a time - they starve people. Remember food that was shipped to Russia and Somalia that rotted on the boat docks because they want to starve people.

We often hear people say:
Q: If God is so good then why are their wars, why do people starve and babies die?
A: Because people use their free will choices to start wars, starve people and kill babies.

See, you can't side with man because our daily experience shows us that he:

• will lie

• will cheat and steal

• will gossip to another's harm

• will manipulate and control another

• will kill

• will rape

Man deserves hell, he or she is a nasty creature down deep and will do horrible things. But God loves us passionately still. God is the only one who has even been our real friend. He is the only one who has told us the truth and confronted us so we don't die like this. In fact He values us and longs for us so much that He actually fought to death to rescue us!

Often people say:
Q: Doesn't all the evil and suffering in the world argue that there is no God? or at best He is evil?
A: No. Using the same argument, one should say, "Since there is so much good in the world, ... love, compassion, forgiveness, honesty, courage etc.... doesn't that argue that God is good? However, there is also much evil in the world... perhaps there is an evil spirit bent on killing and torturing as many people as possible?"

And that is exactly what the Bible says. God is good. There is also a rebellious evil spirit on the loose who once turned against God wanting to be like God himself. Satan.

Our only choice is this: Who do we want to be like?

• Jesus (God): the One who was never made, always was and is infinite and unconditional love?

• Satan: just a created angel who didn't always exist and is in hateful rebellion to love?

Human Free Will makes a commitment to one or the other. Why not reject the accusation in your heart against God and tell Satan to go to hell?

 

One last thought. Many people will agree that people will do horrible things but that people also do some very nice and caring things. And that is true. I am not saying that mankind is totally bad. But I am saying that we are mixed.... and there is no amount of "good deeds" you can do to wipe out your "evil deeds." We need a savior. Someone to re-make us. Not just a quick fix philosophy that tries to throw some good deeds on top of our broken, sinful and weak human nature. Christ died and rose for us - both! He did this so that His "life" would fill us. This is more than just merely forgiving us and leaving us on our own to make ourselves perfect. No. He then puts His life in us. He is in charge of cleaning us up. He does not expect us to perfect ourselves. That is His job. And He likes doing His job. We are too limited to perfect ourselves anyway. He made us. We fell into sin. But He will love and complete us.