Reinventing God?

Pastor Rick Duncan has posted on Elizabeth Edward's comments on losing her teenage son in a car accident several years ago. Pastor Rick quotes Edwards as saying, So I had to think, “What kind of God do I have that doesn't intervene—in fact, may even participate—in the death of this good boy?” I had to accept that my God was a God who promised enlightenment and salvation. And that's all. Didn't promise us protection. So, if I was going to have a God, it couldn’t be an intervening God any more. That’s the God I live with now. It’s not exactly the God I want, but it’s the God I have. Pastor Rick comments, I can’t identify with the kind of hurt she’s been through. My heart goes out to that family. We need to hurt with them. And I’m hoping that no one is trying to give them simplistic, holier-than-thou answers about God. We just have to sit with people who hurt and cry with them. They don’t need sermonettes from us. But make no mistake, in the face of unimaginable and unexplainable heartache, Elizabeth Edwards has had to reinvent God. Her God is not an intervening God who is sovereign.

Like Pastor Rick, I've never suffered a loss like this. But I've had my trials. My father died when I was only 9 and he was just 45 years old. I now have a grandson that has leukemia. And,...and,...and,... We all need to be steeped in Scripture, grow stronger in His Word, be entrenched in the truth so that when grief comes our way we can say, Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved (Ps 55:22). John Flavel has written, You read that the Word of God is the only support and relief to a gracious soul in the dark day of affliction (Ps. 119:50, 92; 2 Sam. 23:5), and that for this purpose it was written (Rom. 15:4). No rules of moral prudence, no natural remedies can perform for us that which the Word can do.

We don't need to reinvent God, we need to put our confidence in Him who is the Creator of all things. There are mercies even in the most difficult of trials.

Read the rest of Rick's post here.