I thank God for taking care of us and providing for us but part of me thinks He “should” be doing so since He made us.
I know we sin against Him but still, He knows our weakness and, if He made us, should then take care of us. So when I read the Bible verses about how we should praise Him so much because He provides for us, part of me thinks, Well, yeah, but shouldn’t He be doing so anyway?
God isn’t obliged to do anything. This is a good question you raise. To answer this, you must first understand that one of the characteristics that God has (apart from the “Four O’s”: Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnibenevolent and Omnipresent) is that God is not dependent on anything. For Him to be obliged to take care of us would suggest that God depends on us (Humanity) for Him to fulfill His purpose. Not the case at all. God is a being in His own right. He does not need anyone or anything.
As a person who often has “mental debates” when praying, I can understand where you are coming from. There are times when I think that God
should be answering all of my prayers and should not be putting me through this stress. However, God is God and He is free to do as He wishes - the Book of Job in the Bible sets this out quite lucidly:
"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:
“Who is this who darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me."" (Job 38:1-3).
Look at how God’s omnipotence is displayed in this passage. In essence, God “calls the shots”, to put it in idiomatic language. Job (who represents Humanity) can do nothing but answer obediently to his master.
In the Book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar says: “No one can hold back his hand
or say to him: “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:35). King Nebuchadnezzar basically reiterates the fact that only God’s Will will be done. . .God does not need Humanity, He does not need anything. He does as He pleases, when He pleases. How good is it to know that our God is not a God that one could call a “pushover”? Yet even with this fact, God is interested in Humanity and desires to see us happy.
Thank you,
**Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk **
