By Ruth Beale
As we look around the world today and even in our own land we see disasters, sickness and tragedy. Surely this would want us to stay closely connected to God.
But if you are anything like me, when all is going well cruising through life and it’s not till a disaster strikes or that there is some tragedy in our life that we then think, maybe I need to pray more, maybe I need to read my Bible with a bit more conviction. Maybe I need to be more connected to God and listen to what He is trying to say to me.
As I watch the events that are happening around us my mind is drawn to the verses in the Bible that speak about the last days and wonder if we are now living in this time. Matthew Chapter 24, verses 6 to 14 tells us that in the last days there will be wars and rumours of wars and pestilence, famines and earthquakes.
Matthew 24:6-7, “6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.”
This is very evident in our world today. You only need to turn on the TV news and see all kinds of disasters. The war in Ukraine, the earthquake in Turkey, the famines in various parts of Africa. Not forgetting our own land with the flooding and many parts of the North Island and people loosing their homes and livelihoods.
At the time I wrote this devotion, I was recovering from my second lot of Covid! If that’s not pestilence what is?
So why with all this around us should we stay connected to God? You might well ask “Where is God with all this devastation going on around us?” Be well assured that He is still very much in control and wants to remain connected to us particularly in times of trouble.
There are heaps of Biblical examples of this for example in Exodus the Hebrew people cried out to God when they were being oppressed by Pharaoh. In Exodus 6:2-7 we read that God said to Moses that he has heard the cry of Israel and said,
“6 Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.”
Later on in the same book these same people cried out to God because they had no food or water in the desert. And you what God answered their prayers and provided supernaturally food in the form of manna and water out of a dry rock. You can read this in Exodus chapter 16, verses 1 to 16.
So, if God could do this for His people so long ago. What makes you think that He can’t do the same today. We can call on Him in our time of need.
Ruth Beale has been involved in Elevate since 1986 and in 1995 she set up Christian Fellowship For Disabled in the Philippines which is now called Hebron Disability Services. She has been running the PCFFD/ EPSP sponsorship programme for many years. Ruth has secondaries spinal cancer which affects her mobility.