The Beginning… was the End, Part II (The Answer)

For the last few years I have struggled immensely with something. I have pretty much kept it to myself because it felt blasphemous to talk about… and most of the answers I have been given from those in the know, just seemed like double talk or rhetoric.

I think the Bible is pretty clear about Gods plan for us, and the predetermined course He has set this world on since before creation… In other words He had an exact idea of who would do what, where and when right down to the minutest detail before the first grain of sand came into existence. It seemed impossible that we could simultaneously have free will and yet each of us follow the exact course for our lives that He has already predetermined… and for years now this has made no sense to me. I have lived my life just chalking it up as a God thing, and remained eternally grateful that He chose to make me one of His, in spite of myself. But this left me with another attitude that bordered on apathy when it came to prayer. Why pray if He already knows what He is going to do anyway? If the outcome is already predetermined then what is the point! I have wrestled God for answers to this for a very long time now, and recently I have had or He has given me an epiphany of sorts, I am not sure which so I will let you be the judge as to where it came from. But it works for me.

I believe whole heartedly that God has indeed set this world on a preset course of His making… and within the framework of this, still allowed for us to decide for ourselves exactly how we want to live. And when we pray to Him He hears us and answers accordingly. Sometimes we get a “yes” and sometimes we get a “no”, but we still get His ear and an answer. But even though He has already decided thousands of years earlier what the answer would be, it is still an answer that is relevant to us and timed for where we are and what we are doing at that moment in time. TIME is the key. Remember that we exist within time… but He exists outside of time. And if we don’t pray we get the luck of the draw or His divine providence… whichever way you want to view it. Because He still answers us according to what we ask or don’t ask for, when we ask Him.

Look at it this way… when we ask Him for something He is here at this very moment in time ready to do for us according to His will and our desire as His children… but simultaneously He is also still at the beginning of creation, planning for what we would ask for (at this moment) knowing in advance that we would ask, and making a provision in His divine framework so that He can answer our prayer at the precise moment we ask. You could view it as praying to God right here and now while at the same time praying to God at the moment He was creating and setting into motion everything that would be within the complex intricacy of how He wanted the world to run. So He really is answering yours/my prayer right now and He is hearing us right now… while still hearing us thousands of year’s earlier, and making preparation for the prayer you would ask so He could make a provision for the answer.

It sounds a little convoluted because it is… but then so is anything that try’s to answer a question that relates to time and it’s existence, while dealing with a Being that does not exist within time and provide some kind of rational answer as to the how and why of its inner working…

I don’t have a Biblical reference for any of what I have shared here. All I have is an answer that satisfies my yearning for understanding when I had none.

I pray it helps you as it has helped me!

Jim