Seriously, is there anything that God directly controls in your life? We have life insurance for tragedies. We have doctors for every disease. We plan our families. Is there anything he has control over, anything that really manifest faith? Is there anything in my life? Very little I suppose. Is that okay because God works through means? Or should there actually be areas in my life where God had direct control, where I stand or fall based on what He does. If I did would my faith be stronger or my witness more powerful than it is now?
Oh it is easy to mock those who trust God to heal their disease, ridicule those who make no financial plan for the future trusting God to simply provide what is needed each day, or question those who allow God to plan their families. But at least they have areas of their life directly controlled by God.
Phil,
I think you are setting up a false dichotomy. That if they plan, financially (retirement, let’s say), for their future they somehow are trusting God less. That if they have life insurance to provide financially for their family in case of a tragedy that somehow they are not letting God have direct control in their life. I think that it is wrong to trust in those things more than one has trust or faith in God himself but to plan, to me, does not show a lack of letting God have control in my life. Am i willing to trust God when i may not have those things? Am i willing to trust God more when i may have those things?
BTW – i don’t think anyone has mocked you about not using any “family planning” methods – i think, if anything, you have stated more or less that it is those of us who use some sort of method need to question our use of it as it relates to what God would truly want for us.
Tom,
This post is more a reflection of my thoughts in my head rather then a condemnation of those who use any of the mentioned items. BTW, I have insurance and try to plan for the future. I just called the doctor as well. But my struggle is this: if I were to decide to start using birth control (which we have considered), part of my struggle would be that I would feel like I have given up the one way I truly let God directly control something in my life. To not use it causes me fear and stress at times, and yet I continue. I feel like it is one of the very few areas of my life that gives evidence of faith in God. There was time when people truly depended on God to provide their daily bread. I wonder if those were better days.
On your BTW – I did not mean anyone here, but I can tell you that most question what we are doing and make it evident through their comments.
And I do think all should consider their use of birth control as I have. Let me make clear, consider as I have, not decide as I have. I am convinced it is an issue much deeper than a simply choice about birth control.
Phil,
Thanks for your response. What about those instances where we are to “consider the ant” (Prov. 6:6), or where we are commended and commanded to provide for our families (and some ways would surely include, in our day and age, life insurance, health insurance, retirement, etc.) – i guess my question revolves around how does “planning” for things somehow show a lesser trust or faith in God? I don’t ask these questions with the implication that I know or have the answers, but rather, truly, looking for insight and wisdom. Because I understand where you are coming from but yet also know that “preparing,” “planning,” etc., are also biblical things. Are we somehow creating a false choice? Or is it where our faith/trust is placed that condemns us, potentially, of a lack of faith/trust in God? Thoughts?
Tom-
Where do you get that planning for the future is a biblical idea? I don’t mean to be a jerk, but I sometimes think we accept sense that seems common as biblical when it may not be. Seem to me the ant thing would be about not being idle in the present.
Phil
Phil,
Good to hear from you. I would offer Prov. 21:20, Prov. 6:6 (most commentaries I have seen offer this as an example of hard work/planning, etc.), Gen. 41:25-27.
Some insurance that we have, like car or house are mandated by law so we are, at that point, simply submitting ourselves to those who govern us – Rom 13.
There is a great book entitled: Money, Possessions and Eternity by Randy Alcorn who specifically deals with what you are talking about here.
Maybe one cannot say “saving is biblical” (perhaps I stretched it there a little in my above post) but with many allusions to saving, investing, planning, etc in scripture as well, i am not convinced you can say that, “saving is unbiblical” or that it is a bad or wrong idea. Especially in providing for our family – I still believe we have many ways to fulfill that in our day and age that don’t necessarily go against scripture or show a lack of trust/faith in God.
I believe, as I have stated before, that a lot of it probably depends on our attitude and trust. Why am I doing those things and the why will probably reveal more of where my trust and faith our at.
Tom,
I guess the question I have is still this. Do not all of these things we have at the very least tempt us to forget God’s providence and sovereignty? It seem to me in the bible that God cherishes the ways in which he can make clear that he is working. So we leave him with these options? Do we do things that truly take faith?
I still maintain that God works through means. When Jason and I put our future in God’s hands and got called to Ohio, there is no doubt in my mind that we were following God. But he didn’t whisk us off to Ohio on a chariot of fire; he worked through the means available (moving van, car, rental company) to get us there. We could’ve stood on our front porch and waited for God to have direct control over getting us there, but that’s not how he worked.
When I go to the grocery store to purchase food, it’s not a lack of faith that God could make my garden grow; it’s God providing my daily needs within the context of the world around me. I go to the doctor in faith and prayer that God will heal me through him. I put money in my savings while I simultaneously pray for my daily bread — not because I don’t trust God to provide, but because I think a savings is one way that he *does* provide.
Phil, you are absolutely right that all we have tempts us to forget God’s providence and sovereignty. I love the prayer in Proverbs 30:8-9 for that very reason.
When it was time for us to buy our house in Texas, we did not have enough money for a down payment saved up. God clearly and beautifully provided money from three separate sources. I remember thinking that I never wanted to have so much money that I failed to see God’s hand working to provide for me, and that’s still true.
But I don’t think it’s a lack of faith to recognize that God often chooses to work through means, and I don’t think it minimizes God’s direct control over our lives.
I hope that what people have taken from my post is not that I believe God does not work through means. I use the word means in my preaching and teaching probably to the point where a thesaurus would be a wise stop. I see that my arguments find no resonance here, so I will call it quits.