There is a powerful opinion piece up on Fox News today. I strongly encourage you to read it. It is not very long, but it has solid, concrete Christian steps we all can take not just during this time of tragedy in Uvalde but at any moment. Please read it. Then, read the devotion. Then take action. The article can be found HERE.
"Sacred Heart of Jesus" by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me,” says the LORD of hosts.
6 “For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
7 “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
Malachi 3:5-7 (NASB)
Where is God? This question doesn’t seem appropriate until you say it in context with the idea that God is love. I encourage you to read this article, which I will link to at the end of this devotion. The author of that article will give you steps to take in the midst of this tragedy that I highly encourage you to incorporate into your day for as long as the Lord leads you on that path. Where is God?
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:7-11 (NASB)
If God is love, where is God when something like Uvalde happens? It’s a legitimate question we should not dismiss. It is a question some Christians are asking, but the answer is in both scripture from Malachi and 1 John. The answer to the question opens some other problems we have to deal with first.
For some Christians who accept the doctrine of Predestination, the question “Where is God?” becomes a problem, and sometimes their answer drives people away. To be fair, sometimes any Christian answer drives people away, but we do not control that. We’ll have to leave that one in the hands of the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes the Predestination answer is, “It was the will of God, and we just have to trust He knows what He is doing.”
The second part of that answer is one-hundred-percent right. We do have to trust God. We must trust Him to know the big picture and the systems He built in creation work.
11 ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NASB)
Those children in Uvalde no longer have a “future and a hope,” though, so again we are drawn back to “where is God?”
God is where He has always been. God doesn’t change. 1 John says God is love, but it also explains that as we are made in the image of God to be love, so should we love one another. For the Christian who carries the doctrine of Free Will, the responsibility for Uvalde doesn’t rest with God but with us. That’s a tough pill to swallow. I don’t live in Texas. I live in Georgia. How am I responsible for what an eighteen-year-old in Uvalde, Texas, did? The answer is in Malachi.
7 “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
Malachi 3:7 (NASB)
We tolerate, put up with, allow, and permit the things God does like. We fail to do, enforce, require, or ask for the things God does like to be followed. We walk away from Him. Where is God? God is behind us where we put Him as a people. Where is God? God is waiting for us to return to Him and embrace Him like the prodigal son returning from squandering his inheritance in the city of decadence.
“But I’m a good person. I don’t do bad things, and I’ve been going to church. How have I ‘turned my back on God’?”
44 “Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’
45 “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
Matthew 25:44-45 (NASB)
Every time we drive by the person holding the sign. Every time we cut someone off in traffic. Every time we have change in our pocket and don’t give it to the woman with the bucket walking along traffic collecting for a cause, we do it to Him.
It seems like a simple act. It seems like such a little thing. How can my $1.57 dropped into an old, plastic one-gallon bucket in Georgia stop a school shooting in Texas? Love. Because God is Love, and we were made to love one another. Not because I gave a boat-load of money, but because my heart was changed to give. When my heart becomes the heart of God, I become moved to change things I see in the world that are not in line with the love of God. When I become active in the world, making changes to bring things into line with the way God says I should love, and follow the way He loved me, then others see it, and they change too. Then we get a chain of love that drifts from Georgia all the way not just to Texas, but to points far, far beyond. When we love the way God first loved us, we can change the world, but it starts with that first $1.57 going into the bucket. Without that first step, all the others will remain untaken, and the path will never be traveled.
Thanks again Mark. It is so difficult to get people to talk about their Bible beliefs without turning everyone nutso! BTW - thank you so much for your service. I am 75 and have only ONE regret - that I did not serve. I tried to enlist when I was 30 but they wouldn't take me - winding down from the Vietnam war. I feel like I let down my fellow countrymen. :(
My thoughts on God answering prayer has changed some since we have started exchanging ideas.
Think about the young man at the mall - Elisjsha Dicken. I shoot often - but 8 hits at 40 yds with a pistol? Lets say that accuracy was from God. That Eli's professional tactical response (with no formal training) was directed by God. That his quick response and even having his weapon was from God. Does God get any of the credit? No.
This is what God said in Isaiah 42:8: My name is the LORD! I won't let idols or humans share my glory and praise." God is only going to answer these kinds of prayers if he gets the glory.
Think of Uvalde. If the shooter had died (because of God) in the truck crash? If one of the cops had shot him when he entered the building? If one of the teachers had a weapon and took him down? Would God have gotten any of the credit? No.
Suppose a pastor's wife has breast cancer and the congregation meets weekly to pray for her remission (she also gets medical treatment.) Remission occurs. Will God get the credit? Yes. Prayer worked! (God may have answered the prayer - He gets the credit.)
In Exodus during the plagues God talks to Moses Exo 10:1 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go and see the king. I have made him and his officials stubborn, in order that I may perform these miracles among them. Exo 10:2 and in order that you may be able to tell your children and grandchildren how I made fools of the Egyptians when I performed the miracles. All of you will know that I am the LORD."
There are many examples that I know you are aware of where God (and Jesus) does things for God's glory. Jesus was in no hurry to save his friend Lazarus. (John 11:4)
So, I believe the answer to my own question is: God answers prayer hen He gets the glory. (If it pleases Him.)
You said it well in a previous post: "God made it all and set up the rules. He can neither be wrong nor do wrong because He is God. It's just how the top level deity is setup."
Sometimes I am slow on the uptake! Thank you Mark. A pleasure talking with you. And may God Bless you.
The children were praying. The parents were praying. Some of the cops were praying. God was sleeping, like he was in the boat. Mark 4:38. God was no where to be found. Everyone has suffered terribly as they will for the rest of their lives. God is never there when you need him.