Article April 12, 1999 Issue

God helps, not hinders

His creation is flawless.

By Faith Walsh Heidtbrink

A Little While Ago, I was standing in front of our local ice cream store, talking with some friends about something that had come up in the news that day. One friend said that it must have been God's will. He believes that everything in life happens because God makes it happen—whether it's good or bad. "After all," he said, "God moves in mysterious ways." Something inside me rebelled at a view that attributes disasters and bad things to God.

I've found that the more I study the Bible, the more authority I find for knowing God as Love, only. In Jeremiah we read, "I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord" (9:24). And "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (Jer. 31:3).

The Bible is the record of generations of real-life people learning real-life lessons as they gained a more enlightened understanding of their creator. As we better understand God through His influence in the lives of the people spoken of in the Bible, we learn that it was not God's will that put them in desperate circumstances, although it was His will that got them out of trouble!

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