Lacking Strength

Most Christians I know are diests to some degree. Very few are actually full-blown theists. Deism as a group died out in the 18th century, but practical deism lives on. Deism holds, essentially, that God spun up the universe, so to speak, and then took His hands off and let it go. Now, most Christians these days don't buy that ... overtly ... but a large number do in practice and demonstrated belief. That is, if I were to watch what they do to determine what they actually believe, they hold to some form of a "hands off" God.

This idea is prevalent. Christians, on the whole, ascribe "sovereignty" to God because, well, it says so in the Bible. Good! But when pressed, they also assign sovereignty to our free wills. God, they tell me, is a gentleman and He would never override us. So, they tell me, in cases that we have no faith to believe what He wants to accomplish or do what He commands, God loses out. I've asked some, "Do you see God in heaven, wringing His hands, bemoaning His inability to accomplish His will because you've failed to believe?" No, no, they assure me, but can't offer a more correct image. God cannot, they assert, work if I don't pray or believe or obey. Further, most believe, in this present evil, for instance, that God's hands are tied. The government is doing this evil and the sinful forces on this earth are doing that evil and God is powerless to stop it. "My boss just did this bad thing to me," they might say, and conclude, "Satan is blocking God."

I am here to offer my confession. I lack the strength to survive that world. I lack the fortitude to face the evils of our day (of any day) with the belief that God's hands, as good and as powerful as He might be, are tied, at least to some extent. The idea that we are at the whim of sinful people driven by a sinful devil without the guidance or controlling force of God is unbearable to me.

Some time ago a skeptic asked me, "Do you believe this is the best of all possible worlds?" No unbeliever would say it is. No practical deist would say it is. But I ... I would say it is. Why? Because I believe in a Sovereign God who is the definition of Love and the definition of Good and who does whatever pleases Him. I believe in a God who works all things after the counsel of His will, who works all things together for good. We give lipservice to "everything happens for a reason," but I believe everything happens for God's purpose. I think Scripture teaches this. I think, further, that my sanity requires it. And this weakness of mine resting on a God of this magnitude of Strength, Power, Grace, and Love (all capitalized for emphasis) gives me a peculiar peace (Php 4:6). Which is good because I lack the strength so many others seem to possess that allows them to function in a Satan-wracked world.