brought to you by America’s [music] Christian Credit Union. All right, James. Uh, let’s open the video vault. What do we got? >> All right, the first video that we have is a girl talking about one of her main questions that she’s come up with in her deconstruction journey. Take a look. >> Deconstruction. >> Thought about this a lot on my deconstruction journey, and I keep coming back to this one question.
If God really exists the way that I was taught growing up, present, listening, answering prayers, moving things around, how would the world actually look any different than it does right now? For instance, I prayed that my grandma wouldn’t get cancer and she still did. But my neighbor prayed that her grandma wouldn’t get cancer and she didn’t.
I prayed that a tornado wouldn’t hit and it didn’t. And my neighbor prayed that a hurricane wouldn’t hit and it did. So when you zoom out, doesn’t it all kind of look like randomness? Like tossing a dice over and over again? Because if God is supposedly changing the outcomes, stepping in, moving the pawns on some kind of divine chessboard, how is that version of God any different from a God who doesn’t exist at all? That’s another question that keeps me up at night.
>> Her biggest challenge was revealed at the very beginning when she said, “On my deconstruction journey.” It’s one thing to uh explode the parts of your faith so that you can examine why you believe what you believe. But the deconstruction journey and then her owning it and saying things like, “If God exists, uh, supposedly he’s doing this, how is that any different?” She already is operating from a place of real doubt.
And she’s saying the world just looks like everything is random. And it appears as though uh there’s no difference between the God that I’ve been taught. And remember, as believers, we are told that we must walk by faith, not by sight. And so if you’re looking at the world, you may determine that everything is random, but nothing’s random.
God is working all things together for good. He is sovereign over every molecule, every hurricane, every tornado, every event that takes place. And remember, we’re also operating from an extremely disadvantaged place because of our sin. And the scriptures say that because of our sin, we’ve put a wall between us and God so that he doesn’t even hear our prayers.
He’s made a way for the wall to come down. But even when it does, Jesus prayed, “God, take this this trial away from me.” When he was in the garden prior to the cross, but God didn’t take the trial away from him. And Jesus submitted himself to the wisdom and the providence of God. And that’s what I need to do. That’s what she needs to do.
Don’t go by the way things look. Go by faith in what God says. And the difference is that a God who doesn’t exist can’t move the pieces on the chessboard. The real God can and he does perfectly according to his wisdom and his good pleasure. And you and I don’t help ourselves by questioning the God of the universe who made us, the grand chess master who is moving the pieces on his board and giving you and me air to breathe so that we can even ask questions like this.
The best route to examine your faith and make sure that it is firmly rooted in reality is to humble yourself. Put your faith in the character of God and in the absolute authority of his word and then begin to ask questions. If I have an infection, I go to the doctor, get antibiotics, and then I get better.
They say God answered our prayers. or if I have cancer and I get chemo and then I go into remission. They say he always provides, but if I lose a limb or if I have a miscarriage, silence. Prayer never heals what science can’t. And to me, that’s not divine. That’s convenient. He’s doing what a lot of people like to do to avoid confrontation with God.
