Message In Stanza

It’s very common in a modern churches to preach a watered-down Gospel message. God is good. And as the famous verse Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (NIV). And we know the devil is evil. He tempts the body of Christ every chance he gets. And we should resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7. NIV).

Now don’t get me wrong, these are all accurate statements. But what if God and the devil don’t always fit our neatly organized boxes for them? In other words, what if we miss out on the other strong attributes of God because we only see Him from a certain perspective? Or we think we have the motives of the enemy completely pegged that we are caught off guard by his cunning schemes?

Let me make a thing clear. I do consider myself a Christian with a firm belief that God is good and the devil is evil. But I believe that our short-sighted messages do not leave room for the full picture of the intentions of God and satan to be revealed.

I ask you, is God really passive or did we make Him out to be within our limited theologies?

I venture to say He isn’t passive at all but behind everything going on. I am not saying He is the cause of it all but He is aware of everything.

In Luke 1:11-17, we see the angel, Gabriel appear to Zechariah to bring the news that his wife, Elizabeth will bear John the Baptist. But Zechariah was full of doubt. We read of his account here when he was told the news, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years” (Luke 1:18).

Gabriel replied back with, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time” (Luke 1:19-20).

Many people ask why God chose to keep Zechariah from speaking for a while. Some say his voice was a representation of disbelief and there shouldn’t be a connection between his sin and the result. Others say taking away his voice was the only thing that made the most sense for God to remove. Zechariah was an older man and if God took away his hearing or eyesight it could be related to his weaning health from old age. So it was the most logical thing to do.

But how often do you hear in a sermon about God taking away Zechariah’s voice? Not too often. When someone is born mute, I don’t believe God is the cause of it. But God can temporarily involve Himself in human affairs in unexpected ways like causing Zechariah to lose his voice.

God can act in supernatural ways to accomplish His ultimate plans for humanity. Here are some other examples: God closed Hannah’s womb, even though He loved her (1 Samuel 1:5. NIV), can bless a womb (Deuteronomy 28:4. NIV), sent plagues to the livestock because Pharaoh wouldn’t let the Israelites go to worship God (Exodus 9:1-4. NIV), and restore and double the livestock of Job (Job 42:10. NIV). As you can see, even though, evil does exist, God, ultimately, still has power and control in such human affairs. And at the end of the day, He has our best interest in mind and He will judge the wicked. However, we probably won’t know the extent of the influence until we get to Heaven.