If I Just Had Enough Faith

Why does God not answer my prayer?  Why do things keep happening to me?  The pastor says it is my fault.  I must not have enough faith.  My parents say it is karma for all the bad I have done in my life.  Is God some supernatural and spiritual villion out there somewhere; like some heavenly Joker?  I understand why bad things happen to me.  I am a bad person.  But my daughter, why her?  She is so pure and innocent.  What did she do to derseve this?

So often we are told, or we think, it is because there is a deficit in our faith.  We think our faith is like the strongman game at the carnival.  We swing our sledgehammer of faith and if we can get our faith to a high enough level God will have to notice and do what we want.  What if it is not a problem with the amount of faith rather a problem with what we put our faith in?  

God told us in Exodus 20 to not have any other gods before him and not to create any image of a god.  We like to think of statues and other religious idols.  We have been told that our jobs, relationships, or coffee can be the modern day equivalent.  This could be true, but I don't think these are the things that lead us down the thought patterns above.  

I do not pretend to know the mind of God and understand why He does what He does and why He doesn't do what I think He should.  I do know that we are all created in the image of God, yet we create an image of God in our minds.  We imagine, not only what God is and what God looks like, but also how God operates or should operate.  This image is developed over time and is effected by our instruction, relation to God, and our personal experience and biases.  I admit that the bias of the image I created factors into what I am writing.  

Here are a couple of examples to show what I mean.  If the image you have created is like a Santa Claus in heaven, you will become frustrated, angry, and dissillustioned with God when He does not give you what you want.  If you have an image of a grey headed judge behind the bench you will feel like every bad thing that happens to you is a punishment and every good thing is a reward for your behavior.  You will find yourself judging God and others when things are not going the way you think they should and life seems unfair.  

What I do know is God cares about having a personal relationship with each of us.  God already knows you and wants you to know Him; the real Him.  Could it be possible that it is not a lack of faith?  Could it be that we have put our large amount of faith in an image of god that does not exist?  Is God using the circumstances of this fallen world to tear down the image of god we have created so we can see the real God in order to be transformed into His image.  Could it also be true, that God is doing something in someone else's life and is going to use what you are going through to tear down their image of God and bring about transformation in their life?  

Life is hard.  We live in a broken world.  However, a restoration and renewal of all things is coming.  The Kingdom of God is near and yes, "everything sad [is] going to come untrue".