4 years ago, I was less than 15 minutes away from the Charleston AME church that had 9 Bible study group members welcome the person who would later take their lives from their families and their church.
A little more than 3 years ago, I can remember waiting, staying up way past midnight, for my dad and stepmom to return home from their date night.
12am, 1am, 2am......and that's when I turned on our TV to hear there was a night club shooting down south.
Yes, my parents were at a night club. No, it was not the club in Orlando. But it was the thoughts of the...“What if someone took their lives?”...“What if they chose Charleston instead, or next time?”...”How will I be able to stop something bad from happening, and when will something bad happen again?
Should I choose to live in fear, paranoid that God won’t be watching my back, won’t be watching my family's backs, when they’re at school or at work, when they’re at the mall, when they’re at a concert, or when they're at church?
Where will God be when tragedy strikes again?
To that, I don't believe anyone has an answer or answers that could silence the questions of the millions of people facing trials every single day.
But I do know God, and I know that nothing has changed from yesterday except that He is working in ways that none of us can logically explain for all to understand.
Psalm 18:30
The ways of God are without fault. The Lord's words are pure. He is a shield to those who trust in Him.
#1. God doesn't mess up. He just doesn't. Like at all. Zero mess-ups for God.
Yes, God most likely saw the tragedies in your life and the lives of others coming, but I can guarantee you that He's not sitting in his recliner-throne in Heaven watching it all happen while eating chips. He's working on other peoples' hearts, He's bringing healing to the sick and hurting, and He's sending help to those who are hopeful and are crying out for Him to work in their lives.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart (not half of your heart, or with all your heart when you want to). Do not lean on your own understanding. (You do not have the answers for why things happen the way they do, but God does).
#2. We cannot think like God, but we can do other things like God.
We can:
- Trust in Him
- Love Others Unconditionally, especially when others are sad, hurting, and feel defeated
- Forgive One Another, even those who do the worst things imaginable
- Pray
- Ignore Satan
- Fight On
2 Peter 3:9
God is NOT slow in doing what He promised. God is being patient with you. He does not want anyone to be lost, but he wants all people to change their hearts and lives.
#3. God is still working, and asking Him to hurry up is going to make time feel a lot slower. I know from personal experience, trust me.
God also doesn't want anyone to be lost or to stay lost. He wants us to surround one another with love and kindness, to comfort each other, and to grow stronger together.
It’s very likely that we will all be tempted to live in fear and hatred against God at one point in our lives or another, past, present and/or future.
If we are still struggling to strengthen our faith and believe in God when He seems absent in times of death and destruction, that means we are still fighting for something, fighting for the belief that God can and will do amazing things when His time is to come.
Everybody who is reading this or listening, God is speaking to us all the time, and He wants us to give Satan the cold shoulder, because if we don’t, we’re going to continue to live in fear and victimize the Creator of Heaven and Earth when the things in our lives don’t line up the way we want them to.
Satan is a LIAR, and he wants you to rot in Hell with him, so say, "No thanks, dude." and KEEP FIGHTING!!!
In Johnny Cash’s “I’ll Fly Away”, the lyrics say, “When I die, Hallelujah by and by, I’ll fly away.”
So when we’re dead, and we stay true to God’s promises, believing in Him and trusting Him, when He calls us home to His Kingdom, we’re leaving and heading to the party. We’re not asking God to send us back down to Earth, but instead, we’re waiting until He brings the rest of our brothers and sisters up to Him.
“Hallelujah by and by”, Praise the Father forever and ever, He will bring me home when my time comes!
So why should we be afraid? Why should we live in fear when something bad happens?
Yes, it’s a natural thing, we all develop a sense of fear, but to know that God will take care of us, through thick and thin, through celebrations and nightmares, we can rest in knowing God is present.
God is loving.
God will return to bring us home.
When my time comes, God, I’ll be ready, and you better know it.
.........
I'll end this devotion with an awesome passage from Romans 8:35-37, and leave it at that:
Can anything separate us from the love Christ has for us? Can troubles or problems or sufferings or hunger or nakedness or danger or violent death?
As it is written in the Scriptures: "For you we are in danger of death all the time. People think we are worth no more than sheep to be killed."
But in all these things, we have full victory through God who showed His love for us.
Live, love and be loved.
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