“Then they will know that I am the God.” Ezekiel 37:6

Have you wondered what God is doing? There are days life becomes so complicated and challenging that one can wonder where God is in all the chaos. Most of the news is about threats, conflicts, and disasters. Floods, fires, and hostilities seem to be the usual fare in the news of the day.

A sense of security is difficult to find. There is always some dime store dictator who wants to show the world how big he is. There are always doomsday prophets who preach, “The end is near.” There is always something threatening the stock market and economic stability. There is always a new strain of some mysterious virus that threatens mankind. There are always sounds of sirens and fear of hatred and violence. There are always noises in the darkness that make us afraid to step out of the light.

 

So, we of faith call on God in prayer. We celebrate that God cares and God listens to the cries of His people. We search the scriptures to quote in our prayers so we can remind God of His obligation to give us what “We name and claim.” In our state of insecurity, we hope for God to become our spiritual vending machine where we can pray the right words, and push the right buttons so God submits to our requests and gives us what we want.

In this posture, our security is not in God, but in ourselves. We think we know best. We think what we desire is most important. We assume we deserve to be released and rescued from the world in which we live. We consider God much like a waiter at our table saying, “May I help you, please.” Our security is found when we know we are the center of the universe.

But, God has a different agenda to ours. He desires to show us who He is. He wants us to accept that He has a plan, not only for us, but for the entire universe. The Lord wants us to realize that this moment in which we live is but a part of eternity. In that eternity, God is trying to include us in blessings and time we cannot earn or buy anywhere else.

So, what assurance can I gain from the answer God gives to me when I call for help? His assurance is that He will always respond to our world, our situations, even our desires, in a way that helps us “know He is the Lord.” This “knowing” is not just cognitive recognition. This “knowing” is personal experience. God wants us to see Him in our world. God wants us to seek a closer fellowship with Him. God wants us to hunger for a deeper trust and celebration of Him in our lives. And, sometimes the request we make is not the best way for Him to draw us closer to His side.

I don’t know what you will read in the news today. But, I hope you will read, in the answer the Lord gives you in your latest prayer, a reminder that we will desire to experience Him more from this point forward. And the answer we just received is to encourage us to draw even closer to His side.

Dr. John A. Temple  Visit the church website at www.psdbc.org.