Question:
What do you say to someone who says to you “The only reason you are turning to God is because everything has fallen apart for you, now all of a sudden because you’re desperate, you’re using God.”???
Answer:
You say, “well, duh!” Or, “darn right!” Or, “you think?” Or, “yeah, and its about time”.
I’m always amazed at how foolish and illogical people get when it comes to God. For example, “I know this expensive car could never just happen by chance. It’s absurd to think that it was not designed and created by an intelligence higher than itself. But I believe the earth, the heavens, and the human body which are infinitely more complex and exquisitely design, all just happened by random chance and time.”
We would never think such nonsense about “real life” but when it comes to God, we start spouting foolish nonsense. Such is this foolish notion that we are only “using God” when people turn to Him in times of trouble.
Think about the absurdity of the following statements:
- You’re just using the doctors now because your sick! You didn’t have any use for them before!
- You only care about the cancer medications now since you got cancer. You didn’t even know about them or believe they existed before.
- Now all of sudden you’re at the financial advisors office every day. You didn’t that that was important until your finances fell apart.
- You don’t really care about mechanics. You’re just using them now since your car broke down.
How stupid would those comments be if someone said them? And yet, we can say it about God and feel like we are really smart.
Of COURSE you turned to God when you life was falling apart. Here’s a few reasons why:
- Prideful humans very often don’t feel a need for God when life is going well; “I’m handling things” – God would just cramp our style
- God often uses “our life falling apart” to finally get our attention and get us to turn to Him. How many times does the doctor warn us that our lifestyle is going to cause us health problems, but we don’t change until those health problems finally occur?
- When life “falls apart” you finally realize your need from Someone and Something higher than yourself; you realize you can’t control everything, and that HOPE comes from outside of our existence
- Our need for God is not always something we can see until circumstances arise that force us to evaluate our life, and determine our need for Him
Rather than ridicule, REJOICING is the proper response that God in His love allowed our life to become so wrecked, we finally woke up and turned to Him. That should be your response to God.
Your response to your skeptical friend should be to tell them you’re glad, you’re happy, you’re thankful that your life finally disintegrated enough to force you out of your self dependence and to acknowledge God. This blessing of “a falling apart life” NOW, has caused you to turn to the One who will give you a “perfect life” for ALL ETERNITY.
Remember what Job said in the Bible after he suffered the loss of his family, his health, his reputation – EVERYTHING WAS FALLING APART:
Job 42:5 “I have heard of You [God] by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. (NKJV)
He is saying that before he suffered, before his life fell apart, he had only heard about God. But after suffering, he REALLY truly saw and knew who God was.
When your life falls apart, that’s often the time that God really has your attention, and can begin to show His love and mercy to you.
Tell your friend that your life is “sick” and you’ve gone to the Great Physician. Ask him if he would go to the doctor if he was sick. Tell him that if it took your life falling apart for you to finally turn to God, you hope his life will fall apart too.