As I speak with people I seem to hear this statement with increasing frequency, “I don’t see how a loving God could . . .”   They usually complete the sentence with something they don’t agree with, for example:  allow suffering in the world; condemn certain lifestyles; send people to hell; etc.

I was reading recently in Ezekiel and this verse seems quite relevant to our age, “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right.’ Hear now, O house of Israel! Is My way not right? Is it not your ways that are not right?”  (18:25).  It is rather audacious for people to say, “The way of the Lord is not right!”  Who are we to say that God is not right – that seems quite arrogant.  Does the clay tell the potter how to form the vessel?

We must realize that the way we think and the way God thinks are not the same.  Isaiah clearly states this difference, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

It’s been said that, “God has made man in his image and man has been returning the favor ever since that time.”  As I read the Bible I see God doing things that I don’t understand.  It would be nice to have God run the universe the way I think it should be run but that’s not reality.  Reality is understanding that He is God and I am not.  My response needs to be one of humility – “Lord I don’t understand but I trust you to do what is right.”  My response needs to be the same as what Ezekiel records in 18:32, “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord GOD. “Therefore, repent and live.”