Punishment from God

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Punishment from God

Forum: Prayer & Supplication
Re:

Fibroid
Re:

Hello Eve,GC&Q
Date: 2001, Aug 03
From: Eveline How <luv_jazz@hotmail.com>

Hello, on the "punishment from God" thing, it's something I feel very strongly about, because of what is happening in my family now (sorry, cannot elaborate).
I feel that Christians nowadays are taught a wrong, or at least unbalanced, message about our lives as a Christian. First, we have the health & wealth gospel, which basically teaches that health is an entitlement and if you're not healthy, it means you've sinned or you don't have faith in God. Then, there seems to be a lack of teaching in the subject of Christian suffering. I guess it's because it is a subject no one really likes to talk about, and for those who have not "suffered" or gone through a traumatic experience, it would really be theorectical. That was the experience for me. For one who thinks the whole health & wealth business is rubbish, I still do not have an easy time.
When I had to come to terms with what's happening in my family, I was angry, very angry. God knows, too, because I accused Him of "playing" with my family just to "prove" something (you know, when people say things like "praise God" or "give thanks", you can't help but think that what you're going through is just a show, to prove something; meanwhile you "kena"). I totally rejected this and I told God that I was very angry, why did He need to play with people just to make himself look good?
Looking back now, I think I had some skewed ideas about who God is and how He behaves, by the behaviour and responses of Christians around me. The "praise God" example I gave earlier is one of them: always look for the silver lining you know. Thankfully, I still had some wits around me and I knew things weren't that "simple." Why? Why? Why? was a constant question, and I knew that after my "angry phase" was over, I better start doing some reading up.
I bought one stack of books on suffering - books by Ron Dunn, Philip Yancey, Joni Eareckson Tada - and I devoured them, read them over and over again. I couldn't touch the Bible as I was so angry.
After all that reading, you know what I realised? I mean I don't think I learnt ALL the lessons contained in the books, but there's one thing which hit me very strongly - we are living in a fallen world. A fallen world will have illness and diseases, our physical and cursed bodies will succumb to them. Only when we are released from the flesh can we attain true and final "perfection" in Christ. Yes, we can be healed of our illness, but any healing that we receive now is only temporary - we will still be "defeated" physically by death and illness (I emphasise the physical part).
So, why should we be surprised by the illness and suffering we go through now? Perfection has not arrived yet.
I am just going through the book of Job now. (Yes, I got tired of being angry.) Everytime you want to know about suffering, people say "read Job". It sounded like a cliche and I hissed at my husband when he suggested that Job probably felt the same as I did. But Job DOES make more sense. You probably can identify some people around you with Job's 3 friends (I had to smile a few times as I was reading).
Oh, as to the question "Why?", I still do not have the answer, but you know what, I'm wondering whether it's important that I do.
What can I say, don't repress your feelings. If you feel angry, be angry; if you feel sad, be sad, but don't deny that you feel lousy and don't try to pretend to be a "happy Christian," praise God day in day out even though you're having doubts. I believe that God is generous enough to let us throw some tantrums. I'm glad I did, because if not I wouldn't have realised some things about this world and about God - too busy being a "happy Christian."
Regards