In our study on the doctrine of suffering we left off last time with the principle that both believers and unbelievers function under the law of volitional responsibility not only as it applies to sin, but also as it applies to the laws of divine establishment, the principles that establish freedom for the entire human race that function within the framework of a national entity.
There is intense suffering from violating the sacredness of life, property, and privacy in criminal acts. There is also suffering from rejection of one's responsibilities related to one's nation under the principle found in Luke 20:25;
A lot of suffering comes to Christians because they are confused because they lack dispensationally specific Bible doctrine and as a result are ignorant about many true principles in life.
If you are suffering from your wrong decisions, no prayer in the world can help you because God's answer will be for the believer to refer to the solutions found in the Word of God just as Paul did in 2Cor 12:7-9;
Many wrong decisions come from arrogance. To protect us from this, God has provided parents, pastor-teachers, coaches, bosses, and all other forms of legitimate authority.
Since the fall, mankind is naturally a fool. This is proven by the tremendous amount of suffering that has been experienced throughout all generations of human history. We've all been born with genetic handicaps and flaws and we acquire environmental and volitional handicaps and flaws. This all adds up to a potential source of suffering.
Although genetic and environmental flaws are often blamed for mental illnesses, all too often the cause is actually locked-in arrogance that becomes the source of a tremendous amount of self-induced misery and trouble.
Many wrong decisions from a position of weakness result in mental illness that is acquired from arrogance, self-centeredness, selfishness, self-righteousness, and the habit of making thousands of wrong decisions.
Man manufactures his own problems and resultant suffering. God manufactures solutions and blessings in the midst of suffering. God is the only source of the systems that are able to turn cursing into blessing.
The law of volitional responsibility applies to our thinking, our motivation, our decision, and our action.
Negative or wrong thinking is self-imposed misery. Negative thinking includes all wrong mental attitudes, all forms of arrogance, and everything by which one reacts to life in the thinking.
Negative or wrong motivation is also self-imposed misery. So by wrong thinking and wrong motivation, we enter into self-imposed misery long before we make any decisions that cause self-induced misery.
Negative or wrong decisions result in self-induced misery that can be classified as deliberate wrong actions that bring self-induced misery or impulsive wrong actions that come from self-gratification and result in self-indulged misery.
Deliberate wrong actions originate from wrong motives and wrong decisions, resulting in self-induced misery.