Since forgiveness requires a wrong done, we would never need to forgive God, as He has never done us wrong! He is not wrong to allow troubles in our lives, especially since He promises to take any troubles and “work them to the good” (Romans 8:28). Jesus said to expect trouble, and promised His overcoming power for our battles. “In this world you will have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 17.3).
To forgive God, we would have to first “blame” Him. Job never blamed God after losing fortunes, health, and all 10 children. “Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God” (Job 1:22). He sure fussed a lot though – for 40 chapters in the book! Still at the end, God said Job “spoke accurately about Him” (Job 42:7). I definitely fussed during my Stage IV metastatic melanoma cancer battle, and I am not aware of blaming God, and hope I didn’t!
Consider John the Baptist who really struggled with God’s plans for him (Luke 7:18-31). John was a prophet, Jesus’ right hand man, and Jesus’ cousin as well. He was imprisoned by the king for speaking God’s truth. John knew Jesus was performing many miracles, yet he sent men to ask Jesus if He was the Messiah. Clearly he was pinging Jesus to spring him out of prison! Jesus did not grant his request and said, “Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me” (Luke 7:23).
Paul and Silas did not “take offense at God” when they were beaten and thrown into prison (Acts 16:22-35). They praised God and sang hymns all night long! They didn’t even escape when God broke down the prison walls in order to save the lives of the prison guards! The guards immediately chose to receive Jesus as Savior. Paul said several times his sufferings led to the salvations of others, an eternal purpose (Philippians 1:12-26).
We can have a strong belief in God’s willingness to heal and deliver, yet joyfully submit to His timetables and eternal purposes. As Job said, “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10).
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