Never Without Hope

I cry about almost anything. If my tears were collected, I’m sure it would have brought up Cape Town’s dam levels by now. So when I read about the shooting at the Baptist Sutherland Springs church in Texas on Monday, I cried. I couldn’t grasp the amount of pain that that little church was going through. I immediately knew that my tears alone wouldn’t change anything, a tweet wouldn’t make much of a difference, I had to pray. But what should I say? Where do I begin when eight members of one family, including a pregnant woman and an eighteen-month old, have been senselessly gunned down. What do you say to God when twenty six people lose their lives because of a young man who didn’t like his mother-in-law?

I know some will actually blame God, they’ll ask Him where He was (as if God is not omnipresent). Their reasoning being that the church is His, He should have protected them. Others will escape the questions in their hearts and minds by resolving that it must have been God’s will for this to happen, how else could it have happened? But these submissions aren’t correct, mostly, they hurt the tender heart of our Father God when we think that He ever thinks of harming us. So how do we reason it so we can come to Him with prayers that don’t offend Him?

We go to His word which is a volt of understanding. We still ourselves so we can hear His Spirit. It’s a principle littered through Scripture that the Church is not exempt from trouble (see texts like Psalm 34:19). On top of that, trouble doesn’t mean the Christian has sinned, notice that the Psalm puts it to us that they are still righteous when they face the many troubles…this was Job’s friends’ greatest struggle. They kept trying to get Job to confess some unknown sin he must have committed because why else would God let him go through such hell? But Job had done nothing wrong, and he knew it, and stuck to it. As much as he couldn’t explain why he was going through what he was going through, he knew he had not contributed to it by being in the wrong. The same goes for the Israelites who didn’t do anything wrong to find themselves in slavery. In fact, it was an attack against them prospering and growing in number in a foreign land.

God’s protection over His people is a standing principle, working in our lives daily, even when we don’t see it (see Psalm 91). But there is no growth and realization of God’s promises where I’m always kept from things. Some seasons of my life demand that I go through things, that I experience them, so that I can experience God’s deliverance. Not too long ago, I wrote about this principle (search for blog title ‘Protected Until Delivered’ in the archives). Death is one of those experiences, and perhaps the one that displays the fullness of God’s deliverance. We are told that the death of the righteous is precious in God’s sight (see Psalm 115:15), this because they are rescued from eternal death and united with God through this death. This is how death loses its sting, its agenda to separate us from God forever is completely thwarted. It’s only when we go through death that we’ll experience the promise of the resurrection from death (yep, that’s a promise that still stands).

I’ve realised that a great mistake we ministers of the gospel make is only preparing the Church for life on earth, spending little or no time teaching the church about life beyond the earth. Our gospel is a message of hope. It’s a mistake when our faith is only focused on our earthly existence. I love how Paul puts it when he says “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19). Jesus has promised us eternal life, He has promised to come back and fetch His church, He has promised us complete transformation of our bodies so that we are like Him, we can’t forget that, we can’t forget to hope and believe for it.

I was so glad to hear what a member of the family that lost eight members in the shooting said “We know where they are now…and it won’t be long until we’re with them”. The aunt’s words moved my heart “We don’t mourn their death because we are unsure of where they are, we mourn for the loss of their presence in our lives. We have no doubt that their last breath here was their first breath in the presence of our God…we serve an awesome God and no amount of evil in this world will ever change that. He is the Rock on which we will forever stand” (both cited by The Christian Post).

So back to my question, what do we pray for these families? When I started praying, these words resounded in my heart: ‘In the midst of chaos, we are never without hope because we are never without help’. I was later reminded of Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” Our prayers must acknowledge God’s words and promises, He is here. We must not be so overwhelmed that we forget that He is present and not just as an observer, but present to help in their trouble. So we pray that they run to and hide in this refuge which is their loving Father, that they be comforted in their pain by the God of all comfort. We pray that God’s peace which transcends all understanding keep their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. We pray for strength, that they will stand and will remaining standing in order to see God use for good what he enemy meant for their harm. We pray their faith sustains them, that they will know and remember that they are never helpless, regardless of the magnitude of the sorrow, they have hope.