Someone asked me, “If God is in control, why is He allowing this to happen?”

My response:
”To open your eyes to the fact that YOU are not in control.”

Despite popular opinion, you are not the master of your fate or the captain of your soul— that even though you have attempted to take your own path, it is God who directs your steps.

We can see how God does this in the “Parable of the Protocol Son” who left his father to pursue the desires of his own heart and squandered all that he had on wild living.

Once he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. He was in desperation; he had no answers, no hope, and no resources left to save himself.
Then he had to hire himself out to someone who sent him to to feed pigs. He was so hungry that he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything— no one would meet his need.

In that moment, God allowed him to see the truth— that he had no control over the situation: “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.” ( Luke 15:17-20 )

God will take away all that you have in order to teach you that HE is all that you need.

He will use famine, earthquakes, fire, flood, and illness— He will allow these things to happen in order to bring you to your senses— for when we come to our senses and realize that we have no ability; no resources to save ourselves, we can then see clearly the one who has the power to save and to heal— then, in repentance and faith, we will turn to Him and live.

As Spurgeon put it: “When we come to the end of self, we come to the beginning of Christ.”

Repent Believe Persevere