“Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.”
(Psalm 31:24 NIV)
[Please join me in praying for our nation and world on Tuesdays.]
Current news stories:
- there’s no more medicine to treat the Covid-19 infected in Shanghai and the death toll in China could reach 100 million in 2023*
- a six year old took his mother’s gun to school and shot his teacher**
- a graduate student fatally stabbed four college students***
- the number of suicides from the Covid-19 vaccine-injured continues to climb****
- the looming economic depression, subsequent job losses, and continued inflation of the national debt (currently at $31.4 trillion) seem overwhelming and impossible to fix*****
These and many other pieces of news today can seem rather overwhelming. Who has the emotional bandwidth to absorb so many terribly hard things? Truly: what can be done about these (and many other) huge problems? I don’t have the answers, but God does. At the dedication of Solomon’s Temple – an extraordinarily GOOD time in the life of Ancient Israel – our God (who knows our human natures) gave us this promise:
“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.” (2 Chronicles 7:13-16 NIV)
When our world is filled with wickedness, evil, and sin, we can turn to God who hears our prayers.
It can seem there is no hope. We might believe our children and young adults, our medical systems, our sciences, our governments, our economies, and our families are in such a mess that there seems to be “no rain,” and that “locusts” have devoured the land, or there are “plagues.” At this point God’s people are called to humble themselves, to pray, to seek God’s face, and to repent from wickedness. In response, God will hear us, will forgive us, and will heal this land.
This week I’ve been working through the story of Esther in the Bible. There are so many aspects to that story, I’ll have to develop most of them in other posts. But today I am thinking of her courage. As you probably remember, she was a Jew selected as Queen of the pagan Persian nation. Haman, the wicked advisor to her husband King Xerxes, convinced Xerxes to sign an order to have the Jews murdered. Esther was very favored by Xerxes, but, under penalty of death, she still could not approach him without an invitation. I was struck by the tremendous amount of courage Esther summoned in order to do a really HARD thing – with discernment, grace, and poise. She boldly went into the King’s presence, he excused her trespass, and she was able to convince him to change the course of a people and a nation.
Esther’s courage is a profound model for how we should approach the struggles of our world today. Is the news overwhelming, depressing, and seemingly hopeless? Yes. But with our God there is always HOPE. We – the Church – must humble ourselves, pray, and then muster our courage to go change this world for the better. You and I may not be able to do much about the 100 million Chinese dying of Covid 19, but we can take a meal or visit a local friend who is ill. We may not be able to bring back the four college students that died in that attack, but we can support families who have lost loved ones to tragedy and violence. We may not be able to prevent economic chaos, but we can save up for hard times and then care for our brothers and sisters who are struggling. Where the darkness seems so pervasive, our prayers, our courage, and our actions can make a difference – can shed a little light and bring a lot of hope.
God of Hope,
We know that your eyes are on those who fear you, whose hope is in your unfailing love, and we wait in hope for you, our help and shield. Our hearts rejoice as we trust you. Thank you for being faithful when the world seems to be shaking. Thank you that you will never forget those in need or those who are afflicted, but you give us courage and perseverance to run the race of life marked out for us and to help those around us. In this day and hour we ask you to hear the prayers of your people for this nation and this world. We humble ourselves and pray that you would heal our land. In a world where it seems all forms of sin, evil, wickedness, corruption, death, and destruction are overwhelming, we thank you that your love, grace, and hope are stronger and better than all those things. In a world where everything seems to be shaking, help us remember that your Kingdom cannot be shaken. We worship you with reverence and awe, Consuming Fire, in Jesus’s name. Amen.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith….Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.’” (Hebrews 12:1-2, 28-29 NIV)
“But God will never forget the needy; the hope of the afflicted will never perish.” (Psalm 9:18 NIV)
“No king is saved by the size of his army;
no warrior escapes by his great strength.
17 A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;
despite all its great strength it cannot save.
18 But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,
19 to deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.
20 We wait in hope for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
21 In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
22 May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
even as we put our hope in you.” (Psalm 33:16-22 NIV)
“Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There’s salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope” – From “Living Hope” by Phil Wickham
* https://www.theepochtimes.com/shanghai-hospitals-are-out-of-covid-medicines_4986504.html & https://www.theepochtimes.com/funeral-home-data-suggests-china-is-still-underreporting-death-toll_4993002.html
**https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-school-downplayed-warnings-teacher-before-she-shot-by-6-year-old-boy
***https://abcnews.go.com/US/idaho-murders-police-hold-news-conference-friday-afternoon/story?id=95976902
****https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/vaccine-injured-need-support-as-number-of-suicides-climb-brianne-dressen_4999123.html
*****https://www.npr.org/2023/01/21/1150078028/debt-ceiling-explainer