Refugees, famines, droughts, terrorism, floods, fire and wars happening right now and, for whatever reason we in the UK have been largely out of it, for now.
Someone said of Ukraine, I can’t go to Ukraine to help, I wish I could, so what could I do? She then said “I can pray”.
Up to now I have found it difficult to connect through prayer, towards anyone I either did not actually know or know someone who knew them. I felt I was too far away from them, isolated from their lives.
When this lady said “I wish I could help the people in Ukraine” in my own mind I was thinking, we can’t do anything, they are not exactly our neighbours.
I have always felt so far away from those folk overseas that to me were out of reach.
What was I thinking about, is my faith in God so shallow, my understanding so dim even after studying the scriptures for so long? Then she said “I can pray”. I can’t believe I hadn’t grasped the full implication of that, no one is too far away to be the subject of our prayers! Why had I missed that?
I think it’s called “not seeing the wood for the trees”!
I can pray, I have had many prayers answered over the years and I am grateful and feel blessed that my prayers are heard.
I am mindful that if God is already working a plan out regarding Ukraine or any other situation, we may well be asking for something which would go against His plan and so of course the answer to prayer is sometimes “no” it’s not always fulfilled but we usually discover why later on and we then see the wisdom of that “no”. (Hindsight, a wonderful thing!)
We pray for so many in the world that are in so much trouble, places such as Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran or Yemen where wars and famines are rife but mark this in : 2nd Timothy 3: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
That’s pretty mild stuff compared to Matthew 24: 3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
THE END IS STILL TO COME
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
As Christians I’m sure we have been thinking/hoping that the end would come long before all the suffering that is going on in the world right now.
Many don’t want to watch the news, ordinary people being driven from their homes, starving, being bombed, shot at, raped, tortured, small hungry children looking up into a camera lens, it is a hard watch and I don’t blame them for not watching the news but Jesus does ask us to “WATCH”. (Matthew 24: 42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.)
Q: Do you ask, how can God allow this to go on? This is probably the commonest question asked by man and it has a simple answer. Let’s go back to Genesis 2: 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
They did eat of that tree of course and what did God do? Gen 3:16 To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labour you will give birth to children. IS THAT TRUE OR NOT, EVEN TODAY?
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. IS THAT TRUE OR NOT, EVEN TODAY?
23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
In other words God said to them and so to all mankind “out you go into the thistles and thorns of life, see how you get on by going against my simple rules and choosing your own rules.
Therefore is God going to intervene whenever a man or a nation raises a hand of destruction towards his fellow man? No, (or perhaps on very rare occasions and for his own reasons He may still protect some).
God is saying, “look at the simple, easy, and modest instructions I asked of you; 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Man couldn’t even keep that simple rule and so, look around… how is mankind getting on writing his own rules while God watches us destroy each other and now nearly destroying the world he made for us to live on?
WATCH. Have you been watching the news, have you been watching? No one can be is unaware of climate change, global warming and fires (even in the arctic! Who would ever have thought that possible?)
Look again at 2 Peter 3: 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
Is this what is happening, is this the final page of God’s plan for mankind and his future?
If it is, then is He going to stop the wars, famines, torture that we created? Is he going to let us write our own rules but then step in whenever one person is about to harm another? The phrase is “you made your bed, now you can lie in it”.
People are suffering, it’s an awful thing to witness and it may test our faith to the very limit but Jesus will return soon, hopefully within our lifetimes, maybe even today and all His who have perished, from old age or wars even in these current wars will be saved.
Can God resurrect them? Yes, look at Rev 1: 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him.
That is why the return of Jesus is going to be such a great day for Him (Jesus) and for us and for the whole of creation.
Does this forthcoming event excite you, it should do.
Isaiah 55:
12You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
13Instead of the thorn bush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown, (aka a memorial)
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.”
What a day this will be for mankind so, continue in prayer as in 15.Philippians 4:5-7
“Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” AND I WILL ADD, NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE IN THE WORLD!
