Good Wednesday morning! The cat is showing off by licking the back side of his rear leg. I'm not going to suggest that anyone try that; I don't have liability insurance on my devotional. We continue to pray for the people in Japan. Hardly an hour goes by it seems without some more bad news from there. If you lived there right now, you might be tempted to walk with your head on a swivel with so many dire perils to lookout for. In any situation like that, we tend to look for someone in charge; a person who has answers we can depend on, and solutions that we can implement with complete faith.
However, the scale of such tragedies puts it beyond the reach of the most capable human leaders. For a time during a catastrophe, any human leaders will be desperately searching for simple and accurate information about the situation. Leaders on the ground will be caught up in the event as everyone reacts to situations far beyond their control. Leaders farther back, a step or two away from the front lines, will have trouble assessing the situation and doing the right thing because of so much conflicting information or an outright lack of any comprehensible message. When we look to governments as people have done in many a catastrophe, the reaction is often slow, late in coming, and even overwhelmingly wrong. But that isn't entirely the government's fault as every government is made up of people trying to get the straight scoop in any catastrophic event. How do you send the relief trucks to a city when the roads are all gone? How many helicopters are available for rescue and is it safe for them to fly? We can sit here and imagine the confusion.
We know as believers in Christ that God is sovereign. At any moment, we might wish that God would step in and stop these catastrophes dead in their chaotic tracks. Only one problem with that. God sent His Son to tell us that these things would happen just before the end time. Wars and rumors of war, earthquakes in diverse places, famine and signs in the sky will all occur near the end of time as we know it. God is not likely to stop the very events that he has prophesied will occur at the end. So then do we blame God for the great tragedies that take place all around the world?
In my life, the tragedies that have come do not cause me to blame God, but rather to call out to Him in my time of trouble. God didn't cause Adam to sin or the world to fall. When sin entered Eden through Adam's disobedience, the Serpent gained a power over the world that he should never have gained. That serpent, the Devil, wants to make people curse God, their Creator. Is the Devil, Satan, then the cause of these tragedies? I don't know. I do not know what is caused by a fallen world cursed with sin or what is caused directly by the Adversary. What I do know is that God can overrule anything on this earth. Why doesn't God stop these things then? As Jesus said, these things must happen before the end.
When a great tragedy happens, pray often and earnestly for those suffering. Help in every way that you are able. Use the sorrow you feel to draw close to Jesus. Pour out your heart to God and listen for his comforting voice. As we might be tempted to ask when a great earthquake or other tragedy occurs, "Where was God in this?" We always get the same answer: Ruling on His throne in Heaven, just as he was when His Son died for our sins on the cross.
I have written of this before, and like you, I would rather that I not need to do it again. But until Jesus comes to take us home, the times will produce tragedies until the final tribulation... when the tragedies will get much worse. As prayer warriors, we have much to pray for in these times just before the end.
Have a better day with Jesus!
Bucky
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