The All Powerful

One of the hardest things about facing loss is from a religious standpoint. Although I would never make it through life without my faith, I've got to say, people are majorly contradictory about it.

Throughout the process (of ANY hardship), countless people say to me things like "It's completely in God's hands.", "The Lord would not have brought you this far and not let it work out.", "All things happen to fulfill God's plan.", "If you have enough faith, He will give what you ask.", "The Lord knows the desires of your heart.", "Only God controls the outcome."

AFTER the hardship...usually ending in death or great loss in some way...the same people say, "God is not to blame.",  "Do not be angry with God, he did not do this.", "God knows what he's doing, it's a lack of faith to blame him for not answering your prayers."

So.....which IS it mainstream Christians? Is He ALL powerful and ALL controlling of EVERY situation or is He not? Am I the only one who sees this massive contradiction? When I pray, I know He COULD work miracles (I've lived them!), but I know most of the time He just lets life pan out with randomness and doesn't step in or interfere. But really....if you believe He controls every aspect of our lives like a chess game, I'm SURELY going to blame Him when things go painfully wrong.

Thankfully, I do not believe I'm a chess piece.