Living in Abundance: God is not Responsible for your Suffering
Often, we struggle with the concept of God as good. Difficulties and suffering in life harden our view of God. God becomes an easy target for all travesties and crises in life. However, God does not cause suffering! The cause of human suffering are the systems of humankind, existing outside of God’s original order: Eden.
Escaping Scarcity: Changing Your View of God
There is a psychological theory that proposes we project our hurt, pain, and suffering onto God. The theory purports, as infants, we are powerless to meet our own needs. As a result, humans view parents as extensions of themselves. When a child receives feeding, nurturing, and love; they develop a healthy sense of attachment and trust in a good world. However, when a parent neglects or abuses an infant; the baby learns to distrust the world. The infant perceives the world and their circumstances with misgiving and suspicion. Even if the infant eventually experiences a sense of security; they continue to view their caregivers and surroundings as unsafe.
Just like the neglected infant; your experiences of suffering and scarcity skew your view of the world. As you cope with negative life experiences, your resiliency protects you. However, as hardship and difficulties continually pommel you, your resilience wavers. You become desperate and wonder why God is not intervening. As the pain continues, you become angry and distant from God. Out of your grief grows bitterness. You begin to question if God even exists or cares. God becomes the distant parent. You no longer trust God for love, comfort, and safety. In your mind, God becomes your abuser.
We cannot ignore the impact of our negative life experiences on our relationship with God. They are real and cause immense suffering and pain. However, one must be on guard against misplacing blame for your suffering on God. Suffering is always because of human’s failure to create a society based on God’s created order: The Garden of Eden.
God designed you for paradise. Eden would have grown into a moral community based on fairness, justice, and security. Great civilizations would have emerged! Human beings would have advanced in God’s creative order without experiencing suffering or scarcity. Suffering emerged because of our desire to be like God before we were consciously ready.
Title: distant, Author: Hannes Flo, Source: Flickr is licensed by CC BY 2.0
Because of humankind’s fall in consciousness, you now live in two spiritual systems. One a system of blessings, abundance, and life; the other: curses, scarcity, and death. Human suffering was never God’s original design. Sorrow occurred by introducing good and evil before we were mature enough to responsibly use the knowledge. The very fact the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was in the garden endorses the fact God intended to share this knowledge with humans. We just weren’t ready yet!
Reexamining the fall of humankind provides a new lens to view God. God is not the perpetrator of abuse, neglect, and hardship in your life. God had a different plan. It is not God that causes suffering, hurt, and pain. It is our spiritual misuse of the knowledge of good and evil that causes human anguish. Suffering always occurs by human hands.
God designed you for paradise.
Holding God responsible for human suffering is projecting your pain onto a safe object. As a result, you become separated from your source of abundance. It is not God who has become the neglectful, abusive parent. You project your experience of scarcity and pain onto God; instead of where it belongs: squarely on the shoulders of humankind!
Not that you are to blame for your circumstances. Many people, because of no fault of their own, endure suffering. However, outside of normative human losses associated with birth, death, disease, old age, and human error; we can trace all human suffering to greed and selfishness.
Pick one social issue: poverty, food scarcity, inequitable wages, or climate change. We can trace each of these back to systemic human causes that operated outside of God’s creative order. We suffer, not because of God, but because of ourselves.
Escaping Scarcity: One Principle, One Power, One Presence: God the Good.
To live in abundance, you must stop projecting your blame on God. Instead, you must replace your projection with an accurate understanding of God as good. It is easy to blame God; but first stop and ask yourself some key questions.
· Who was the perpetrator of your suffering? It was likely a human or human system.
· How did the individual or system prosper by your suffering?
· What was the self-centered motivation of the person who caused your suffering?
As you review each circumstance; notice your pain is because of human hands.
The first step of escaping scarcity is recognizing God is not to blame for human suffering. It is only when you recognize the absolute goodness of God that you can live in your highest good. You must relinquish your blame, anger, and animosity towards God. You must assign the blame to the rightful perpetrator: humankind.
To live in abundance, you must stop projecting your blame on God. Instead, you must replace your projection with an accurate understanding of God as good.
When you stop blaming God, you will once again see God created the world for your highest good. You will realize the goodness of God, even amongst human created chaos. However, you must first see God, not as your projection of blame, but as God authentically exists: one principle, one presence, and one power.
God as One Principle:
It's difficult to understand God as a principle. This is especially true if you attended a church that assigned human attributes to God. Analogies such as the heart of God, the arms of God, and the wrath of God are just that… analogies. These analogies are designed to help humans understand an unfathomable concept. For individuals experiencing suffering, the concept of God as a principle is helpful. When you view God from the perspective of principle; you can trust God.
Principle is best understood as a “universal law”. When God is principle, you acknowledge God is unchanging. This immutable state means you can trust God regardless of the circumstances. As the Bible notes, “God gives rain to both the just and unjust.” (Matthew 5:45, WEB); signifying that God is good, regardless of person.
God, the good, is such a powerful principle that even when humans cause suffering; God moves behind the scenes to restore and heal
As a principle, God is unchanging. The spirit can only plan for your highest good. God, the good, is such a powerful principle that even when humans cause suffering; God moves behind the scenes to restore and heal. Not every situation is good. To say trauma and suffering are good, is wrong. Instead, God as principle reminds you that no matter the circumstances; God works the conditions together for your good.
The concept of God as principle gives you full confidence that even when bad things happen; there is always a path to good. God, as principle, is working towards your abundance.
God as One Presence:
Understanding spirit as a presence forces you to see God is all around you. A life of suffering and hardship often skews your view of God. Pain causes you to see only your suffering and its consequences. Understanding God as presence provides a way out of suffering and pain.
God is always actively present. God is the gorgeous tree in your yard, the dawning of a sunset, the crescent moon in a darkened sky, and even in the laughter of a child. Every perfect gift that is perceived in your world is God revealing as presence. Even the good inside of you is indeed God manifesting in the world.
Look for what is good, vibrant, and joyful; there is God!
Understanding God as presence opens up new paths of love and hope. When you see any form of goodness, it is a reminder that God is present and working for your wholeness. One of the starkest pictures of God’s goodness contrasted with the darkness of human systems is a wildflower growing out of cracks in the concrete. The concrete symbolizes the harsh systems of humans. The wildflower represents the life and presence of God unfolding, even in the harshest conditions.
Through recognizing God as presence, it reminds you of God’s goodness and continual manifestation, even in the darkest moments of your life. Look for what is good, vibrant, and joyful; there is God! Moments like these remind you the Spirit is actively supporting you with its presence. Like the wildflower blossoming on the highway, there is beauty and life. God, as one presence, is continually working towards your abundance.
God as One Power:
Recognizing there is one power is foundational to living in abundance. God is the only creative, maintaining, and sustaining power in the universe. The great news: God is on your side, and in fact, on everybody’s side.
How does life look when lived in the conscious power of a good God? First, it provides a sense of safety and security. If God is the only power, then nothing can oppose God. For this reason, your experiences of fear, insecurity, and uncertainty are only illusions. When you move to the consciousness that there is only one power; there is no lack or scarcity. For God, the one power provides for all of creation.
It's challenging to see good in the direst circumstances. It may tempt you to believe there is no opportunity for a good outcome. However, this doesn’t mean that good isn’t present. Viewing God as one power, with no adversary, gives you the confidence that God is working for you.
How to Begin Living in Abundance: Awakening to God the Good
Awakening to one principle, one presence, one power; God, the good, emboldens you to create a new life vision. God loves you with an immutable tenderness. The spiritual presence of God pervades all of creation. God’s power is on your side. Imagine if you woke up every day with full confidence you are safe and supplied by God. You would make different choices, love others in new ways, and live in the abundance God has for you.
Finding Exceptions to Scarcity and Suffering
Trauma, negative experiences, and suffering at the hands of others often prevents a person from seeing God as their source of abundance. Because of your experiences, your mind becomes warped and skewed to only see difficulties. We often project these difficulties onto God.
To escape suffering, look for exceptions. The patterns of thought programed into your mind often prevent you from seeing anything but suffering and sorrow. This is the brain's way of protecting and preparing you for future injury. However, the problem is your view of the world from a wounded perspective creates the projection of suffering in all aspects of living. It becomes a circular self-fulfilling prophecy!
Trauma, negative experiences, and suffering at the hands of others often prevents a person from seeing God as their source of abundance
Identifying exceptions is key to seeing the good. If you are employed in a toxic work environment; maybe one person is always kind to you. If you are in financial need, maybe extra special deals come your way. Always look for the exception reflecting your highest good. When you identify even the slightest good, it will amaze you how abundance quickly grows in your life. Eventually, you see signs of wholeness everywhere.
Living “as if” Scarcity and Suffering No Longer Exists
After finding and celebrating exceptions that show God is good; the next step is to live in God’s wholeness. If a miracle happened today and you really lived “as if” God is good; how would this change your life? What changes would you recognize first?
The goal of this exercise is to identify how you would think, feel, and behave differently because of God's goodness. How would this impact your daily decisions, relationships, and activities?
Once you have identified the positive changes, select one or two areas you would like to transform. This is your new life believing in God as one principle, presence, and power. Develop a goal for each area. Then write-out three active steps you will take daily to pursue the goal in the light of God is good and supports you. These small goals, overtime, become an abundant life.
Conclusion:
Difficulty and hardship often skew your view of God. As a result, you may struggle to view God as good. The first step to correcting your distorted view of God is to recognize God is not to blame for your suffering. It is only through recognizing that God is one principle, one presence, one power, God the good, that you can correct your distorted view of God and live an abundant life.
Written by: Heath B. Walters, Ph.D.
Copyright © April 18th, 2023, by Heath B. Walters, DBA Spiritual Life Resources, All Rights Reserved.
Reference
Word English Bible (2022). Web Online.https://ebible.org/study/.
