God was watching out for him/her

[Magnetic Poles]

After any incident where there is loss of human life with at least one survivor, you hear statements like, "God was really watching out for him", or "God was taking car of her". While true, and I am thankful for every spared life in the face of tragedy, I am often troubled by such statements. To complete the thought would be to say, "God was watching out for him, but he didn't care about the rest of the people who died". If God was watching out for them, whey does he not prevent the disaster in the first place, or at least spare all of the people involved? Why does one person survive a bridge collapse, yet another dies? Why does one child survive the crash of a church bus, yet others meet their doom? Any explanations I have read come off as lacking, or portraying a capricious God. I have some ideas, but I'd be interested in reading the thoughts of others about this issue.

 

[Hope of Glory]

Or the sportsman (boxer, football player, whomever) who thanks God for letting him perform. Does that mean the other person blames God for making him lose?

 

[TCGreek]

After any incident where there is loss of human life with at least one survivor, you hear statements like, "God was really watching out for him", or "God was taking car of her". While true, and I am thankful for every spared life in the face of tragedy, I am often troubled by such statements. To complete the thought would be to say, "God was watching out for him, but he didn't care about the rest of the people who died". If God was watching out for them, whey does he not prevent the disaster in the first place, or at least spare all of the people involved? Why does one person survive a bridge collapse, yet another dies? Why does one child survive the crash of a church bus, yet others meet their doom? Any explanations I have read come off as lacking, or portraying a capricious God. I have some ideas, but I'd be interested in reading the thoughts of others about this issue.

1. The greatest theological discovery I have made is to come face to face with the Sovereignty of God.

2. IMO, at the heart of the Scriptures and human affairs all through the corridors of time is the display of God's unyielding Sovereignty.

3. This does not mean that we have to present God as capricious or as a peevish monarch, who gets his feelings hurt and take it out on us feeble humans.

4. Rather we cry out like Job, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21).

The psalmist sings: "But our God is in the Heavens; He does whatever He pleases" (115:3).

5. Amos asks the rhetorical question: "If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it?" (3:6).

6. I have come to a place in my life where I worship God for his decretive and permissive will, though I do not understand what is really happening.

 

[Hope of Glory]

What he said.

 

[Alcott]

Same thing as winning the lottery. "I'm thankful I won" says the winner, to whatever it is s/he believes in-- God, a god, some gods, the stars, the cards, the numbers, the bones, a spiritual force of chance, or nothing but randomness. "If only one was going to survive, I'm thankful it was I."

This type of thing/thinking can also be applied to subjects normally considered less troublesome to the source of 'blessing' or 'being smiled upon.' When we're in a group that regulary takes "prayer requests," my observation is that after diseases, previous injuries, and problems with drug/alcohol of someone close to the requestor, the next most common request has to do with getting a job. If you pray for that, you are praying not only to get a job, but that other candidates do not get the job. Still, a couple of weeks ago someone for whom this request has been ongoing in our "Bible Fellowship Group" for almost 2 years now announced she has a longed-for teaching job, and most in the group applauded when told she has finally been blessed with the answer to that on-and-on prayer. But the same day another reported she did not get the job she thought she would be offered the week before and for which the group had also prayed. Probably needless to say, that was just an "Aww..." kind of reaction; no one said the answer was "no," and no one pronounced a seemingly equally valid curse to the blessing of the first requestee.

That's an example of how there is no logic, no system, no balance, no rational reasoning to our statements "I'm so thankful He was watching over me today..... "Oh-- you're the one He did that for-- when do I get my turn?"

 

[Magnetic Poles]

Interesting responses. Particularly your point, Alcott, regarding praying for someone may mean praying against someone else. Which also brings up the point, is there any true power in prayer? What I mean by that is if God's will is set, does prayer actually change his mind? Can a timeless God actually do something different than the preknown outcome? Does that limit God's omnipotence? If prayer doesn't really get God to change his mind, is it really just something we do to help ourselves accept whatever the preordained outcome turns out to be?

 

[Pastor Larry]

Look up and read John Piper's recent article on the Minnesota Bridge collapse. Very good on this general topic.

 

[tinytim]

What he said.

Yeah, what he said about what he said....

 

[Hardsheller]

Interesting responses. Particularly your point, Alcott, regarding praying for someone may mean praying against someone else. Which also brings up the point, is there any true power in prayer? What I mean by that is if God's will is set, does prayer actually change his mind? Can a timeless God actually do something different than the preknown outcome? Does that limit God's omnipotence? If prayer doesn't really get God to change his mind, is it really just something we do to help ourselves accept whatever the preordained outcome turns out to be?

All of which leads me to ask this question. How much of what we define as normal Christianity is really real versus how much of it do we make up as a result of traditions, expectations, false teachings and downright misunderstanding of the Scriptures?

 

[Magnetic Poles]

All of which leads me to ask this question. How much of what we define as normal Christianity is really real versus how much of it do we make up as a result of traditions, expectations, false teachings and downright misunderstanding of the Scriptures?

Excellent questions, Hardsheller, and I suspect quite a bit.

 

[Hope of Glory]

The saying, "Better be careful what you pray for, 'cause you just might get it!" is true.

That's why we should always tack on the "if it's your will bit". But, not in word only; we need to mean it.

"Please let so-and-so get this teaching job, if that's your will for him" is probably a better idea than "please let him get this particular job". Although God commands everyone to work (and he designed us to work 6 days per week), perhaps this particular job is not the right one. If it's not, and you pray for it anyway, you just might get it!

 

[Hardsheller]

Here's an article that may or may not be related to this subject depending on your viewpoint.

http://www.abpnews.com/www/2695.article - Neurotheology

 

[just-want-peace]

Mat 5:45 --- for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

How many times has God protected you and you attributed it to "good luck"? How many times has it been pure circumstance and you attributed it to His intvention?

As one poster put it "GOD IS SOVERIGN"; He does what He wants, when He wants, and how He wants, to accomplish the end result He wants, and we have virtually no concept of any of this except on rare occasions.

Just because it (whatever "IT" is) is not to our liking does not mean that it is evil or bad; it's simply that we don't like it.

So we either trust God (Rom 8:28) or we complain and blame God cause He "ought to do something--". (Isa 55:8)