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Over the course of the past several weeks, our nation has been rocked by repeated acts of terrorism which have led to national unrest and personal dismay. Understandably, many are asking as to why or how such things could occur. As followers of Jesus, we have a unique opportunity to speak the truth in love to those around us who would question God’s activity in or through these tragic events, even while we grapple with our own uncertainties. This past Wednesday our church gathered for a time of prayer over these very issues and I shared these truths from God’s word which provide guidance during dark times. Cling to these truths from the Bible as you share with others and wrestle with your own questions.
1. Pray. Ask God for wisdom, compassion, strength and a word fitly chosen. (James 1:5)
2. Feel and express empathy with those most hurt by this great evil and loss. (Romans 12:15)
3. Hold out the promise that God will sustain and help those who cast themselves on him for mercy and trust in his grace. (Isaiah 41:10)
4. Affirm that Jesus Christ tasted hostility from men and knew what it was to be unjustly tortured and abandoned, and to endure overwhelming loss, and then be killed, so that he is now a sympathetic mediator for us with God. (Hebrews 4:15-16)
5. Declare that this murder was a great evil, and that God’s wrath is greatly kindled by the wanton destruction of human life created in his image. (Genesis 9:5-6)
6. Acknowledge that God has permitted a great outbreak of sin against his revealed will, and that we do not know all the reasons why he would permit such a thing now, when it was in his power to stop it. (Deuteronomy 29:29)
7. Express the truth that Satan is a massive reality in the universe that conspires with our own sin and flesh and the world to hurt people and to move people to hurt others, but stress that Satan is within and under the control of God. (Luke 22:31-32)
8. Express that these terrorists rebelled against the revealed will of God and did not love God or trust him or find in God their refuge and strength and treasure, but scorned his ways and his person. (2 Thessalonians 3:1-2)
9. Since rebellion against God was at the root of this act of murder, let us all fear such rebellion in our own hearts, and turn from it, and embrace the grace of God in Christ, and renounce the very impulses that caused this tragedy. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
10. Point the living to the momentous issues of sin and repentance in our own hearts and the urgent need to get right with God through his merciful provision of forgiveness in Christ, so that a worse fate than death will not overtake us. (Luke 13:1-5)
11. Remember that even those who trust in Christ may be cut down like these, but that does not mean they have been abandoned by God or not loved by God, even in those agonizing hours of suffering. God’s love conquers even through calamity. (Rom. 8:35-39)
12. Mingle sorrow with unbreakable confidence in the goodness and sovereignty of God who rules over and through the sin and the plans of rebellious people. (Genesis 50:20)
13. Count God your only lasting treasure, because he is the only sure and stable thing in the universe. (Psalm 73:25-26)
14. Help them see that one message of all this misery is to show us that life is short and fragile and followed by eternity, and that selfish ambitions are tragic. (Acts 20:24)
Resting Secure in Turbulent Times,
Jason