“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever.”
Philippians 4:19-20
It’s hard…
In a world so prone to chaos and agony, so given to turmoil and anguish, it’s hard to believe that the Lord will provide for His children according to all of their needs…
We have a tendency to look around and see everything that’s going on and to wonder where God is in all of this. Why not? After all, He’s a God of goodness and mercy; He’s a God of grace and compassion who guides us by the tender precepts of His love. Yet, if this is true then where is He? Why does He seem so far off? Why does He seem so distant from us? We wonder to ourselves because we have heard the promise that He’s supposed to provide for us and yet it seems like all that is provided is pain and suffering, hurt and sorrow. Is He even there? Does He even exist if this is the world that we are given?
We cry out in a deep sense of yearning that grips our souls as our spirits seemed crushed under the burdens of this world and we wonder what else is left to us as the darkness of these wicked days seem to encompass us, engulfing us in the bleakness of the despair that they carry with them. We see evil men of seemingly unstoppable force on the march as they let iniquity guide their way. We can’t help but wonder what sort of God allows for these people to triumph while the innocent suffer by their hands. We can’t help but wonder what sort of God allows for injustice to reign while tyranny subjugates the spirits of those who are in so much need.
How can we not wonder?
When there are captives taken, held for ransom, used as nothing more than tools of a political agenda or for monetary gain, their lives held cheap, how can we not wonder? When prisoners are cast to dark places by brutal regimes governed by hatred and oppression, left to rot in these dark places, how can we not wonder? When human trafficking seems to be on the rise and children are tortured by this depravity of the iniquity of the souls of such evil men, then how can we not wonder?
How can we not wonder when slavery is still in this world or when governments still practice genocide and gendercide against their people? How can we not when such horrors occur and we are left with nothing more than to watch them happen as they rob the dignity from humanity and the integrity of life from not only their victims but from all of us, who then become clutched by the power of their evil as well.
With all of this around us, with all of this to be seen all around us, how can we not wonder? It just doesn’t seem possible to put those fears and doubts out of our minds as they grip our hearts and our souls, our spirits and our being.
Yet just because we can’t see the hand of God, our Heavenly Father, at work in the world around us, just because we cannot see His hand guiding the fate and the destiny of men, doesn’t mean that He isn’t there. A God of justice and of tender mercy He toils and He labors for the cause of His children even in the darkest of days, even in the bleakest of times, providing unto them comfort and peace, until that moment when, at last, He shall bring them to freedom, that blessed freedom that they so long for, that they so yearn for and that had seemed so elusive to them.
He has always been, He is, and He remains a provider God who cares for and loves His children, who contends with their cause and their plight, never leaving them like lambs unto the slaughter.
Perhaps we may not always be able to look upon the struggles and the ordeals of this world and figure out how the Lord is at work, after all His ways are not always our ways and though we may like to see Him come with a flaming sword of justice and a shining shield of righteousness, it doesn’t mean that’s the way it’s going to happen. Our Heavenly Father is a God of wondrous signs and miracles, but just because we cannot recognize those miracles at the time they happened or see them as a wondrous sign of His great love doesn’t mean they are not there. Remember, even when the eyes of Pharaoh beheld the great deeds of the Lord in Egypt for the cause of His people who had suffered as slaves under the task masters whip, the great and mighty king was quick to dismiss the hand of God as being present to offer unto His children deliverance from those cruel days.
Look therefore for the signs of the Lord and His miracles. Even in this sinful world of iniquity that leads to the dark hold that evil men have over the poor and the weak, the suffering and the pained, the anguished and the sorrowful, the Lord is there to work His will and His ways, forever contending against unrighteousness that would seek so to destroy the innocent and rule over the spirits and the souls of men with such spite and vile despondency. Know that the Lord God Almighty is there, that He is here, has He has always been, ever faithful to the promises and the assurances that He has given unto each of us in the precious love and the tender mercy that He has for us.
Though darkness and chaos may be all around us, God, in His justice, will provide His righteousness even when it seems as if He is far off or far distant from us. His miracles remain, His signs are shown and each and every one of them are offered unto us as a wondrous testimony to the compassion and the care that He has for His beloved children. He shall, in glory and might, in power and authority, set captivity captive and ransom even the most lost of souls, even the most downtrodden of spirits, for He is the Lord God Almighty, given to the plight of His people, regardless of where it may be, regardless of the strength that evil may have, regardless of the influence and the hold the old Adversary may have in this world.
There, as we look to all that the Lord provides for us and how He does it, even in those moments when He, in His righteousness, seems far off, we too can proclaim, as the Psalmist once had “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?”
What a rich and great blessing that is in the hearts and the souls of all of the people of the Lord, given in love to His will and desire, sheltered in the protection of His gracious and glorious wings, restored to strength and comfort and peace in the power of His Holy Spirit and granted salvation in the precious blood of the Lamb through the great sacrifice Christ has given unto us in wondrous mercy for us, given for our liberty and our freedom..
Lord, therefore grant this unto us all.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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