Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, And for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, And filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Psalm 107:8-9 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.107.8-9.KJV
The LORD is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: Neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, So great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, So far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:8-12 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.103.8-12.KJV
The world around us doesn’t think that God is merciful, especially during times of war or famine, or economic chaos. Most of the time, the world wants to blame Him for their troubles, whatever they may be. God doesn’t need to explain His actions or His inaction in any situation. Sometimes in the past, He did tell His prophets why He was doing this or that but He usually did this because He wanted the Israelites to know His reasons.
Did God feel the need to tell them why He was allowing a famine or why He was withholding the rain? God told them the reasons for some of His punishments because they needed to know why they were being punished. Usually, it was because they had disobeyed His commands or His commandments such as when they were worshiping other gods rather than Him. Moses had told them many years before that they would do these things and that they would be punished but most of them had forgotten all of those warnings.
God’s Word tells us what happened in the past so we will not make those mistakes today. Yet, many people in the church still look at the Old Testament as an outdated document that we don’t need to read today. The same is said about the Constitution of the United States. Our history and the history in the Bible are there to show us what could happen if we make the same mistakes.
Jesus came to be the sacrifice that would take care of ALL of humanity’s sins. He paid our debts so that we could become the adopted children of God. To be able to have a relationship with God for all eternity.
O come, let us sing unto the LORD: Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, And make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, And a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: The strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: And his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: Let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, As in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, Proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, And said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath That they should not enter into my rest. Psalm 95:1-11 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.95.1-11.KJV
The increase of his house shall depart, And his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath. This is the portion of a wicked man from God, And the heritage appointed unto him by God. Job 20:28-29 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/job.20.28-29.KJV
But, what about those who don’t follow God and seem to be blessed beyond measure? God may be testing them to see if they will acknowledge Him and the blessings that they have. It is also possible that the devil is making sure that they get their “wants” in this life so that they might not seek God for His blessings. There is always a struggle in this world between our needs and our ideas of what we “need” to have. One of those is an actual need and the other is just something that we think we need.
When you are following God’s precepts and His wisdom, He will supply all of your real needs if you are depending on Him for your provision. But…for many people, Christians or not, truly depending on God for your daily needs is not as easy as it sounds. Most people don’t wake up thanking God for giving them another day to be in this world. Many don’t even give any thought to Him until something in their life goes wrong or turns in a direction that they weren’t expecting. Then many of them blame Him for whatever is going wrong!
If you don’t know God or Jesus as your Savior, why would you blame Him for whatever is going wrong in your life? He doesn’t punish you for things that aren’t going your way just because you haven’t heard His voice in your spirit/heart that you need Him. Many times that small voice may not show up in your “spiritual ears” until He gives you a seed of faith that will allow you to hear it and sometimes it takes a bad diagnosis or some other problem in your life that will get your attention!
When you hear Him and decide that you need Him as your Savior, I’m loathed to tell you this but this is when the devil puts a target on you and your life. Why? Because now you have gone over to the enemy’s camp. While you are living your life without Jesus as your Savior, the devil doesn’t really care what you do. But when you give your heart and your life to Him then you become a problem in his eyes. You will have trouble in the world even after you’ve given your heart to Jesus and possibly even more than you had before but now you have Him to lean on for strength and protection.
The Living Message of Christ 