Trusting God, Part 6

Chapter 6: God's Power Over Nature
We have all been affected or inconvenienced by nature at some point in our lives:

• delayed flight
• canceled picnic
• plants in garden died
• rained just after you washed your car

There are over 1400 Biblical references to this topic (most of which attribute the weather as the work of God):

• Job 37:3,6,10-13
• Psalm 147:8,16-18
• Jeremiah 10:13
• Amos 4:7

When we complain about the weather we are complaining against God who sent the weather (Numbers 11:1)

God sometimes uses the weather as an instrument of judgment (Amos 4:7-9) but it is most often an expression of His gracious provision for His creation. "I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I the Lord do all these things" - Isaiah 45:7

It is also often difficult to trust God when we see babies born with major birth defects or when someone who has taken every precaution against it still gets cancer. When God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses pointed out how he was "slow of speech" and God said "Who gave man his mount? Who makes his deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord?" - Exodus 4:11

When Jesus encountered a man that was blind from birth, His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2). Jesus replied "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life" - John 9:3

All creation has been subjected to frustration because of the sin of Adam (Romans 8:20). "For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men" - Lamentations 3:31-33. God never wastes pain.