Lord we bow before your mercy, and ask for your grace, protection and help.
Today, Hurricane Dorian is kind of hitting South Carolina. At one point they were saying it would make landfall in our state, but we think not at this point. In the midlands, we are getting just a little wind and a little rain, which is needed.
There is an old song "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" that says: "O fearful saints, fresh courage take. The clouds you so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head."
There is much truth to be taught in this, but it is often truth we cannot hear because we leave God out. Even Christians act as if God has nothing to do with creation, with the weather, with answered prayers or anything else.
More people care about trying to diagnose the storm than to pray to the One who calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee. Some just will not believe God can do that, or that God even wants to do that. Part of this is we value this life so much, that if we lose our things or our stuff is destroyed then we think our lives are over. This is a spiritually unhealthy way to look at life. Why? Because at some point we will ALL lose everything in this life- our stuff, our family, our great knowledge, our health, our beauty, our strength and handsomeness.
I can remember having a house fire ruin much of my house, and having to move out. If I had earnestly believed that my life was about stuff, then my life would have been destroyed and depression would have taken over. Instead, I was glad to live through a dangerous situation. God is not just here to bless us with safety and health. In order to reach heaven we will lose both of these. If we think God only exists to help us add stuff upon stuff in this life, then we are merely using God- like a Genie in a lamp. Life is not just about what I can get and accumulate here.
I am not afraid to trust in God and proclaim Him as the ruler of the wind and waves. I am not afraid to ask God for protection, or even to change the weather pattern. God is not less powerful than our computers who simply try to diagnose (many times poorly) what He is doing. These storms show the crisis of our faith in our day and culture. Jesus, in the story below was asleep in the boat during the storm while the disciples panicked. His rebuke to his disciples was perhaps more powerful than his rebuke to the wind and waves: "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" In our world, we would rather choose to have no help than to believe we can call on God for help. In doing so, we deny the help of the Almighty, and leave ourselves to the mercies of the wind and waves of life. But if we do not recognize God's hand of protection then we will not thank Him. If we do not believe that God can save us or help us then we will not draw close to Him or be grateful to Him.
So today, if you have no hurricane blowing away your belongings- give thanks to God our deliverer, our shield, our protector, our refuge and strength and ever-present help in trouble.
"Jesus was in the boat. A furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Peace! Be still! Then the wind dies down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? " They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" (Mark 4:37-41)
No comments:
Post a Comment