Chocolate Christians!

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"Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" (Job 2:10)

In an Indian Airlines domestic flight I heard two kids shouting from behind my seat, "Fly Indian Airlines. No other hostess is so kind!" I soon found out that the air hostess had given them some extra chocolates! Unfortunately the theology of many an average Christian is so childish! God is no more than a Santa Claus for them! How do we justify our belief that only seemingly good things proceed from God, in the light of the following Scriptures?

"Enjoy prosperity while you can. But when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. That way you will realize that nothing is certain in this life" (Eccl 7:14).

"The Lord God arranged for a leafy plant to grow and spread its shade over Jonah's head... But God also prepared a worm! The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant, so that it soon died and withered away" (Jon 4:6,7).

"I am the Lord, and there is no other. I am the one who creates the light and makes the darkness. I am the one who sends good times and bad times. I, the Lord, am the one who does these things" (Isa 45:7).

Only when we are thoroughly convinced of the sovereignty of God and that nothing goes beyond His control and happens without His permission, we can sing with apostle Paul that all things work together for good even if it is calamity or danger (Rom 8:28,35). The things Paul lists out as to what all might try to distract him from his love and intimacy with Christ are amazing: Tribulation, Distress, Persecution, Famine, Nakedness, Peril, Sword, Death, Life, Angels, Principalities, Powers, Present Things, Future Things, Height, Depth, Any Creature! This conviction leads us to unshakable confidence and we are enabled to "be patient in trouble" (Rom 12:12).

A senior servant of God met with a road accident a few years ago. I was with him to help him get admitted in the hospital. Among the first few things I sent to him to his ward was a Bible. In the evening when I visited him he profusely thanked me for sending that Bible. God had spoken to him through Job 12:9. He said his mind became calm and the shocking surprise was no more there. Beloved, folks may guess and say hundred and one things about our suffering. But we can assure ourselves by asking, "Who does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?"

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