Where is God when evil seems to triumph? How can we pray, what can we pray when God seems powerless? Theologians have struggled with these questions for centuries, but there are no neat answers.
updated March 5, 2022
In his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6 , Jesus taught,
“This, then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in heaven,hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,your will be done,on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.
By the time I found this book, the author, Margaret Guenther had already passed away, December 11, 2016, at 87 years old. Among other roles, she was the Assistant Rector of St. Columba Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. She had served as a spiritual director and retreat leader, but the only position that touched on medicine was as a volunteer at a home for unwed mothers.
In this little book, she used her theological education as well as her personal life experience to address practical questions that everyone has, Christian or otherwise-like this one, the question of why evil exists.
“I have great respect for evil and become uncomfortable when we trivialize and try to domesticate it, or even turn it into entertainment via mediocre movies. Most simply put, it is manifested in consistent, conscious choices made in diametrical oposition to the God of love.
Where is God when evil seems to triumph? How can we pray, what can we pray when God seems powerless? Theologians have struggled with these questions for centuries, but there are no neat answers.
Ultimately, we are left with Job, baffled yet willing to let God be God. (Job, a Bible character who suffered multiple undeserved tragedies.)
The question of evil will not go away that simply. We are supposed to be praying and, quite possibly wrestling as well- with our questions, with our doubts, with God. ”
Evil, whether in the actions of an individual or in the behavior of whole nations, is a challenge to our prayer.
Margaret Guenther. from the book
Are you praying for the world’s deliverance from evil?
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“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God.
Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.”
C.S. Lewis, British novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, broadcaster, lecturer, and Christian apologist.
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