The Hand of God

            In light of Tuesday’s election and hurricane Sandy I thought this post particularly fitting. I first wrote it down on paper months ago when tragedy seemed to hit our nation over and over again. This past Wednesday I felt God prodding me to complete it. I hope the words he graced me with help others as much as they helped me.

            Lately there has been a lot of talk about how God’s hand has been lifted from our nation and in light of the many tragedies that have befallen our nation in the last year alone it is easy to think they might be right. 

            I must confess this utterly terrifies me. Why? For several reasons: 1.) I hate the thought of being hurt or losing the things I love (whether they are things or, even more importantly, loved ones), 2.) I hate not being in control and ironically when the world is spinning out of control there is very little control to be found, 3.) I hate to think that we’ve finally gone far enough that God has forsaken us. The thought that we no longer have his protection sinks fear into my heart. I’ve always taken it for granted and now the thought of it being gone scares me through and through, and 4.) I am a worrier by nature even though I try hard not to be. 

            I wrote the above last July right after a horrible storm came through the town I live in. Just hours before I had sat alone and scared in our basement desperately praying we’d all be alright.  That night as I lay on the couch to afraid to sleep God gently spoke into my terrified heart. 

            God reminded me, as I lay in there in the dark sweltering in 100 degree heat, that I can never be plucked from his hand (John 10:28-30). Even though he may remove his hand from our nation it doesn’t mean he’s removed it from his children. 

            We are promised that he is with those who love him.  In Romans 8:28 we are reassured that God works for the good of those who love him, who were called by him. Promises like this abound all through Scripture. Scriptures like,

Psalm 56:1-3 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” 

Psalm 34:4, 7-8 “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”

Psalm 33:18-19 “But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.”

Matthew 10:28-31 “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.  Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.  And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

But here’s the thing, just because we’re promised God’s protection and hand on our life doesn’t mean that we will live a life of ease as others go through the hard times. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, sold in to slavery, and sent to prison, Noah was ridiculed for years only to see everything he knew washed away, Moses had to deal with a whiny wishy-washy nation, Job had everything taken from him, Elijah suffered through a famine, Paul was thrown in prison, flogged, shipwrecked, and stoned, and most of the disciples died horrible deaths.

 I don’t know if they ever questioned God and what he was doing, but what I do know is they never lost faith in the God who promised he’d be with them through the famine and through the abundant times

The life of following God is fraught with perils but it is through the hard times that we truly learn to lean on him.  James chapter 1 warns us that we will go through trials but it also encourages us to find joy in them for by the testing of our faith we are developing perseverance so that we may lack nothing (vs 3-4 paraphrased). These trials are blessings in disguise for in them we learn what it means to need God completely. Most of them time we go through life knowing that we need him but never truly leaning on him except in moments of greatest need. A time is coming when we will need him more than we ever have before. A time that we, as Christians in America, have never seen. Oppression may be on the horizon but our darkest hours are also our greatest because they are the moments where we learn to fully draw on God causing our roots to grow deep.

The purpose me writing this today was not meant to produce warm fuzzy feelings or for us to think that we are safe from the wrath of God. I honestly believe this not the case. I think that we must stand and face the consequences of a nation who has turned from God just as Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego did when they were taken into captivity along with the rest of the people of Israel. 

Just because we obey and follow God doesn’t mean we are safe. What it does mean is that we have a hope for the future (Jer 29:11) and a reassurance in a God who promised to never leave us or forsake us (Deut 31:6). He will stand with us through the fire and through the storm just he stood with Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego.                                                                                               

Isaiah 43:1-3b

         But now, this is what the Lord says—
                he who created you, Jacob,
               he who formed you, Israel:
                  “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
                     I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
                     When you pass through the waters,
                 I will be with you;
                    and when you pass through the rivers,
                        they will not sweep over you.
                     When you walk through the fire,
               you will not be burned;
                the flames will not set you ablaze.
                   For I am the Lord your God,
               the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

           

The thought of God’s wrath coming upon our nation is a scary one but he has not called us to a life of fear but one of freedom in him (Josh 1:9; 1 John 4:16-18). In 2 Timothy Paul writes to remind Timothy that God has not given his children a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and discipline (2 Tim 1:7 paraphrased). We can choose to live in fear but all of the worry in the world won’t change anything (Luke 12:22-31). Once God’s plans are set the only one who can change them is God himself. Psalm 33:9-11 states that the plans of the Lord stand firm forever and the purposes of his heart through all the generations. No matter what God’s plans are for us as individuals and as a nation we have the wonderful reassurance that God works for the good of those who love him (Rom 8:28). Despite storms that may rage he has plans for us, amazing ones that include a hope for the future (Jer 29:11).

Matt 6:25-34 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

God wants us to be stretched beyond what we can bear because it is in those times that we learn we can’t do it alone. He doesn’t want to beat us down until we can’t take anymore, but he does send hard times our way in order to make us grow. Honestly, I don’t like the election results from Tuesday, but a part of me is excited because I know that times are coming where I will need to rely on God more than I ever have before and I want that. I want to wake up every morning and know that without him I’ll never make it through. I want to wake up knowing I can’t meet the needs of the day but that I have a God who can. I’m not saying that I am looking forward to the times when life is daily struggle just to get by, but I am looking forward to the times that stretch my faith.

In conclusion I just want to add that while the election may not have turned out the way we had hoped, we still have a God who is in control. Nothing is outside of his hand. Life may be changing but he knows our needs and the love and worry we have for our families, especially our children. The world will be different for them but God hasn’t changed. He still loves us more than we can fathom and desires good things for us and for our children. Life may be hard but he is faithful to meet the needs we have. It may not always be in the way we’d like, but he see’s so much more than we do. No hardship seems pleasant at the time but the everlasting benefits are so much better then we know.