How God Works (or the only way it really makes sense to me...as of today)

Here I am about to type about how I think God works...and I have NO idea how this blogging site works...why do I already have like multiple blog sites? And...posts for each blog? I don't know...I'm confused...

Anyway...

This is about prayer. And the confusing nature of it. And I think I have it understood.

This is also about God and the pain and suffering that is in the world. God = Good. Suffering = bad. God controls all; in all there is suffering. That's a very simplistic way to look at it, but it's a common contradiction that upsets people, but again, I think I have it understood.

"If God is good, why is there suffering?"

God has a plan. He has a plan for all us and for the entire universe (universe meaning all of existence). He has an end goal - but we do not know what it is, and we cannot understand it. And after a lot of thought and searching, I don't believe suffering is part of His plan.

Basically, there is Point A and Point B. God's plan is to get us to Point B. Simple. Straight line. Done...or is it? (lol) We can't see this mysterious Point B. We are blinded. But Point B = God's ultimate plan, so there is no way we CAN see Point B. So we must trust God in the journey - but - now here is where everything gets jumbled - we were also created with free will.

(now I believe we were created with free will because God wants us to accept the gift of salvation and love Him in a true form, if He forces us to accept the gift and to love Him, it's not in a true form and it has no meaning)

Our free will makes this journey NOT a straight line. We go all over the place and do a lot of stupid things that are not in any way glorifying to God. And that is what creates suffering. So, we have suffering. People who do horrible HORRIBLE things (steal, murder, rape, etc...). Now I think God would prefer that we didn't. But He has given us this free will, and He isn't going to take it away.

So what I think He does, and He is a master at it, He tries to find ways to use these HORRIBLE things and find good in them. In the times of suffering, man is more likely to go to God. Sometimes immediately, sometimes as a last resort. Some people (me included) need the pain and suffering to help grow, but some don't.

Now people pray. People pray all the time for suffering to stop. But it doesn't. Because there is free will. And the prayer to "make someone do something" would take away free will. I think prayer serves many different purposes.

God wants us to pray because that encourages a conversation with Him and helps grow a relationship. He wants us to just TALK to Him. We can ask for things, ask for clarity, thank Him, complain, whatever...He just wants us to do it! So, in that alone, prayer is a great thing. But I want to explore the way God answers prayers.

I believe God's journey for His plan is always in fluctuation. I think He sees the billion different ways one thing can happen. And then there are certain key points in this universe that He knows MUST happen. And they do. But He is always focusing on His end goal (Point B). It's not that the current moment isn't important, but He understands that getting to Point B is just as important as Point B itself. Only He understands that. We wont ever understand that. Point B wont be the same Point B if we don't get there in the way He wants us to. But with free will he has to move things around so the journey can still have the same desired impact and also not change Point B.

Let's say Point B is 5. 1 + 4 = 5. Now, 1 has free will. So 1 decides to subtract half of it...and is now .5. Now God will add into 1's life another .5. Thus - .5 + .5 + 4 = 5. But maybe 1 doesn't want another .5...And so on and so forth so the journey can even be something like .5 - 4 + .5 / 42 squared * 3.14 [56x - etc...etc...etc... = 5.

So for the example of "If God doesn't want me to kill myself, he will have me survive this 100 story fall I'm about to jump." I disagree completely with that. He MAY have you miraculously survive, but He wont force you to not take the jump. What He WILL do is put doubt into your mind of surviving. He will provide loved ones by your side to say "don't do it." He will do everything He can do without taking away your free will.

And that is a way of God trying to take suffering out of the world. I don't think He just lets it happen, but He makes attempts to stop it (but without taking away free will). And even if you did go ahead and jump, He would find a way to still find good, He would have to change his equation to get to Point B. Now people will bring up "can't God just perform a miracle?" He can. But if he does one every single time something like that happens, the fabric of the universe has no meaning. It would be like playing a game of Chess, and letting your opponent take back any move they want, at any time, as many times as they want. The game would cease to exist and have no merit.

Now there is the confusion of "He knows what everyone is gonna do before they do it anyway." So, is God surprised by what happened? How can he be? He must have known all this suffering would be happening. And yes. He does. But He also knows every single possibility without the suffering. He sees all possible moments at all possible times. And in the same way I don't think a dog can understand how we think and see the world...the same for how we can't understand how God sees the universe.

I do think God takes into consideration every single prayer everyone does. But He wont take away people's free will. I think if it can fit into His plan, He will try to put it into place, but it is still up to the other people to take the actions. He wont force them to do anything. I do believe that if you don't pray for things, certain things wont happen. But God wants you to pray. And He wants you to act in glorifying Him. And He will encourage you to do so. And if you don't, well, then He just needs to make some more changes to the equation. But He'll never give up on you.

Now as far as do people who don't have any ability to understand God's grace/salvation go to hell? I don't believe that's necessarily true. Since I believe that God can see every single possible moment at all times, I believe He can see into anyone's soul and see what choice they would make if they were made aware.

And what about people who are aware, but chose not to accept the gift? Honestly, in the idea of parallel universes, where every single action and possible event that could happen is happening somewhere - if somewhere in those parallel universes that person has accepted it - I believe that person's soul in all universes is "saved." It's possible there are some who, just in no possible way, would ever accept.

Now does this just make everything just not matter? No. Because there's doubt. This could be all wrong. And really what it comes down to is we are given what we are given to work with. We observe what we observe and even if this entire universe was fake or not true or whatever, we know we exist in it. There could be more and maybe there isn't. But either way, we know that we exist RIGHT NOW. We exist in this current universe with this current situation and these current issues. And nothing can take away the right now. I hear what I hear, I see what I see...and if there's more I hope to learn it and understand it, but until then I can only work with what I got and the universe I perceive and exist in.

...at least that's what I believe.