When I just moved to a new house my husband decided to buy me a beautiful makeup mirror that I've always been dreaming of. I was successfully using it until not long ago it fell and broke...
Obviously, I was upset and I started thinking about the extra money we'd have to spend to buy a new one. My husband though went and did something that he always does in this kind of situation - he sent a letter to the manufacturer from who we bought the mirror.
You have to understand that in the USA customer policy is very well developed and manufacturers are oftentimes ready to replace or refund breakages - even if you didn't buy a warranty, even if it wasn't their fault. That's why we described the problem and sent the letter hoping for some help from the company's side.
At that moment I realized that sometimes this is exactly how we build our relationship with God. He, as our Creator, gave us life that we immediately ruined ourselves. Every day we experience the fruit of our own mistakes and wrong choices - the consequences of the fall, the consequences of our own sins, etc.
And even though in the same way as the story of the broken mirror, the damage occurred "by no fault of the manufacturer", we're still desperately telling Him about our problems asking Him to solve or fix them.
I grew up in post-soviet realities so I often want to say that this is wrong. From what I understand we're supposed to be responsible for our actions, our decisions, and our mistakes. And it's not the manufacturer's fault that we decided to move our furniture, and accidentally broke the mirror. With this mentality, we shouldn't ask God to solve our problems, we should rather be punished for our wrongdoings and sort out the messes we made ourselves. But is this what Jesus taught us?
Matthew 7:7-8 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened."
Contrary to my reasoning, the Scripture says "ask!" Sometimes our pride and self-sufficiency don't let us humble ourselves enough to ask for help. But Jesus never encouraged pride. Otherwise, He showed us that God (and people) have mercy and sometimes we simply need to ask to receive an answer, help, and grace - even when we don't deserve it.
And so, we come to God with our problems - whatever the reason was. We pray, ask questions, ask Him to intervene and help us solve our problems. Sometimes God would help us and give us supernatural answers exceeding all our expectations, and sometimes the answer would come from a completely natural source.
But sometimes God is silent. At times we have to clean our messes, at times God doesn't deliver us from punishment or shame and we have to overcome our hardship by ourselves. Don't you feel that this is a little unfair? Why doesn't merciful God show us mercy all the time?
I think that apostle Paul had the same questions because he talks about it quite a lot in the letter to Romans. Here are some verses that caught my attention:
"What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy ... he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills." Rom. 9:14-18
And also:
"But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Rom. 9:20
Yes, God is merciful and we all know it and see it. But sometimes we forget that He's also self-sufficient and sovereign. He makes His own decisions and if we don't understand them or don't agree with them it doesn't give us the right to question His will. If He decided to show us mercy we should be thankful for that. But if He decided otherwise, we simply need to humble ourselves and trust Him. There's no other way.
In regards to our understanding of what's fair, I can talk a lot. But I'll be brief: fairly speaking none of us deserves any mercy. The most unfair thing that has ever happened in the history of humanity was Jesus's crucifixion, but God still decided to give us all a chance for salvation. So we shouldn't act as judges - but rather be thankful for the grace that he gives us beyond measure!
By the way, if you're wondering how the story of the broken mirror ended, it also had a happy ending. The manufacturer gave us his apologies for the breakage and refunded us 50% of its price. Yes, we still had to incur certain losses but we also received undeserved mercy that proved what Jesus taught us: "ask and you will be given!"
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