Have you heard someone say, “It depends on how you look at it.”  That  usually is followed by two perspectives that share little in common—though each addresses the same situation.

How do you look at God?  Is God a Villain or a Helper?  Is His pleasure in destroying us or in being merciful to us?  Does He deliberately ignore us, or does He have our best interest at heart?

God is likely the most abused being we know.  He is blamed for everything bad, but receives no credit for anything good (we did the good stuff).  Some people’s view of God is so bad that they do not believe He exists.

We Christians share a major part of the blame for the poor view of God.  We seek to scare everyone into being godly by threatening them with an angry God who finds pleasure in their terror.  Too many think we can “scare” someone into godliness.  We leave the impression that if a person does enough “godly things” this intolerant God will begrudgingly save us.

Question: If God so delights in human suffering, why did He let His son die to provide us opportunity for salvation?  Why bother?  Why not let us all be “lost’ and be done with it?  Paul wrote, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32, NASB)

If we do not trust God as one who has our best interest at heart, we will not allow Him to teach us how to live.