My heart is overwhelmed today because of where I’d be were it not for the GRACE OF GOD.
There is so much sin and sadness in the world and, as I ponder the suffering, I think to myself “were it not for the mercy and grace of God that could be me.”
What if one day it is me? What if I, or my family, were the victims of some kind of grave injustice? How would I respond to my creator then? How would you?
Like the 20 sets of parents who lost their children in a senseless shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School just 11 days before Christmas. No doubt there were presents already under the tree for these precious little ones or gifts for them were hidden away waiting for Santa to put them out on Christmas morning.
How do they view God in light of this tragedy? How would you? How would I?
And what about the family of the23-year-old medical studentin India who was brutally gang raped and died? How does her familyreconcile such a horrible act of violence against their daughterwith the goodness and the grace of God? How would you?
Or the Pakistan School Massacre?
Or the two New York City cops that were shot at point blank range for no reason other than possibly some kind of blind retaliation for the Ferguson, MO riots that resulted from a policeman killing 18-year-old Michael Brownduring an altercation.
These stories and others like them have been weighing heavy on heart. They often cause me to reflect on what I would do in such situations. Would my faith in God be just as strong? Or am I just a fair-weather Christian?
And would my belief in the absolute and total sovereignty of God be affected if He allowed a deep violation of some kind to touch my family? I would hope not, and I pray not.
I am sad for the many people who have been hurt and had their loved ones torn from their lives in such gruesome and evil ways.
I am also sad for our world, that despite the continual evidence of evil invading our every day lives, many still do not fear and reverence the Almighty God – Christ Jesus.
In Christ’s infinite love and mercy He wisely allows us a free will to choose good or evil, blessing or cursing.
“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)
And for those who have entered into a covenant relationship with God, like David of old did, even in their grotesque failings God in his mercy and love often offers them choices or buffers them in some way.
“Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose thee either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.” (I Chronicles 21:10-12)
Here God explains the consequences of those who do not choose to reverence and obey Him:
“Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:…For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord:…They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.” (Proverbs 1:28-30)
Let’s talk today about heartaches and injustices, and how we respond and react in our faith when things happen either on the national scene or to us personally. For me, the longer I live, the more Idesireto have the faith of the Apostle Paul:
“Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.”
How about you?