Archive Poster : June 2022
When a maternity hospital is bombed; when a 55 year old woman with multiple sclerosis has to be carried from her home to escape shelling; when a 5 week old baby is shot dead with his family as they try to drive to safety... What words are there?
Whatever our political views, whatever our beliefs or our circumstances, in all of us something cries out in protest against the horror of the vulnerable and innocent people of Ukraine suffering.
As you watch and hear the news perhaps you feel hopeless, overwhelmed, furious, powerless... Perhaps you cry out, like so many before, "Where is the God of justice?" or "Where is the God of mercy?" or simply "Where is God?" If you do, you are in good company. To be filled with sorrow and outrage over suffering and injustice is to share God's heart. Jesus himself, as he hung cruelly and unjustly nailed to a cross, cried out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).
When we witness the horror of greed and power-hungry destruction; when we follow the devastating consequences resulting from the actions of tyrants, we glimpse what life looks like without God. The evil that is being done in Ukraine, and in so many countries around the world, is godlessness. It's what it looks like when people ignore and in fact live the exact opposite way to how God has designed us to live. It is unfair, it is horrific and it is heartbreaking.
Still, God is merciful and just. Jesus who came to earth to bring peace (Luke 1:79; Acts 10:36), will return to bring justice (Acts 17:31).
Jesus himself said "...will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man [Jesus] comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:7-8).
So let us cry out together in prayer to the God of mercy, justice and peace. And in so doing let us turn from any godlessness in our own life and be one of those that do have faith when Jesus returns.
Prayer:I hate the violence and injustice of what's being done in Ukraine. Please bring your mercy, your justice and your peace to those suffering and the country as a whole. I admit that I myself have lived in ways that have ignored you and been unmerciful, unjust and caused conflict. Please forgive me and give me faith in Jesus as the just and merciful judge who will return. Amen.
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