From The Vicar's Desk
AT A TIME LIKE THIS! October 2008
When things seem to go bad, people seem to take two possible positions. One is either forget God and seek answers by your self or run from place to place for solution which may or may not come. The other is complete dependence on the Almighty God who in the fullness of his own time will deliver all who depend and trust in Him. He never fails those whose faith is perfectly rested in Him. Those who seek his face in prayer and worship, at a time like, will never be let down by God.
We are all aware of the current global economic crunch. It may go from bad to worse. The Lord in his love may cut the time short. Many families and individual nations have started to bear the pains of it. Yet the love of God has not come to an end. Our Almighty God is still supreme and he controls the forces in the universe. Some people who sincerely depend on God and trust him might fall off at this time. Others who also believe in him might draw closer even as conditions worsen because they know whom they believe in and have no other place of refuge. Some others, who do not believe at all might, out of God’s grace use this opportunity to draw closer Him as a way of escape from the imminent danger and death. No matter where you belong, it is not foolish to trust in God. The Psalmist in Ps 118: 8 would say, it is better to trust in God than to put trust in men. While we do not under-rate the intellectual ability of our leaders and top educated men and women, human ability has a limit. God is the only Power that can control all situations. Jesus is the Answer to all human problems. We can only pray that the Almighty God would grant our leaders grace to trust him and find solution to our present quagmire. Unless the Lord builds the city, they labour in vain who build it and unless the Lord watches the city, the night watchmen keep awake in vain. (Psalm. 121)
Some of the world’s natural disasters could be God’s own way to make us depend and trust him. He may not cause them but he allows occasionally to be in the dark that we might know that he alone is the Light. Vain neither is the effort of man and neither the horses nor chariots nor in our own modern age of technology, sophisticated and digital nuclear weapons can save a nation.( Ps 33). Only the Lord God Almighty can save those who trust him and come to him through his only Son, Jesus Christ, who came that we might have life and enjoy it in abundance too. (John 10.10)
So at a time like this, do not give up your faith. Your miracle is on the way. If you are not a Believer, it might be your last chance to accept him now as Lord as Saviour. You would never be wrong by doing so. I am, with St Paul, convinced that nothing can separate us from the love of God- (Romans 8 31- 39). The Lord who owns the universe can fold and unfold it. The earth is the Lord and its fullness. All the abundance we enjoy in human world come from God, whether we acknowledge it or not. He knows his plans for us, plans of good not evil and to give us a future hope ( Jeremiah 29: 11) He who clothes the lilies and feeds the birds of the air, will surely look after us till this hard time is over. You are precious to Him.
Udobata R. Onunwa
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