God Is Hiding

Posted on by korgrocker

“O Lord, why do you stand so far away? Why do you hide when I am in trouble? The wicked arrogantly hunt down the poor. Let them be caught in the evil they plan for others. For they brag about their evil desires; they praise the greedy and curse the Lord.”
Psalm 10:1-3 NLT

The Psalmist wasn’t afraid to make his complaint to God. He had no fear of a lightning bolt from Heaven because of his audacity in questioning God’s motives. But he merely expressed what we all do sometimes – where is God when the going gets tough? As we know ourselves, it is easy to praise God when the blessings flow towards us, but not so easy when we are in trouble. 

The Psalmist was reflecting on his own troubles, but he followed his questions with, once again, his observations of wicked people. How do they get away with their evil ways? Asaph, another Psalmist, expressed similar sentiments in Psalm 73. In fact, he writes that the prosperity of the wicked almost caused him to lose his faith. Psalm 73:3-5, “For I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness. They seem to live such painless lives; their bodies are so healthy and strong. They don’t have troubles like other people; they’re not plagued with problems like everyone else.” He continued in verse 16, “So I tried to understand why the wicked prosper. But what a difficult task it is!”‭‭ In Matthew 5:45b we read a little snippet from Jesus, that perhaps provides a reason. “ …  For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike“. It is a ludicrous thought that God would perhaps stop the sun shining on all those people who ignore Him, coming under the Psalmist’s “wicked” definition. Imagine a largely dark world punctuated by pools of sunlight as Godly people went about their business. God’s blessings of life apply to everyone, wicked or not, but the difficult thought for the Psalmists was that the wicked seem to have more than their fair share.

But back to the times of trouble. We read about what happened to Paul and Silas in Philippi. Through the name of Jesus, they had removed the power of divination from a slave girl, upsetting her masters. A riot ensued and Paul and Silas ended up severely beaten, and imprisoned with their feet in the stocks. They were in trouble, without a doubt. And then we come to Acts 16:25, “Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening“.  We would have thought that they would have been crying out to God, wailing their complaints and asking why He hadn’t been there for them when they were in so much trouble. They had been abused and incarcerated in a stinking jail, their backs sore, their movement severely restricted. And yet they were praising God. How could they do that? God wasn’t there for them when they needed Him, some might think. The wicked people in Philippi had imposed their vengeance. But no external act of wicked people was ever going to stop Paul and Silas praising God.

James wrote in his epistle, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow” (James 1:2-3). The sad thing is that becoming a Christian doesn’t mean that we won’t have to experience troubles anymore. In fact, Jesus said, ” …Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). So when the Psalmist questioned God’s motives in times of trouble and questioned why the wicked people got away with their wickedness, and when we do the same, we instead should turn to the Lord, expressing our thanks and praise. God isn’t hiding from us. He is always there when we need Him. But in those dark days when the Heavens seem like brass and our prayers don’t seem to get to God, we need to press in, worshipping and praising. We so often want to hide from God when troubles beset us. So on a Sunday morning we stay at home when we should be at church. We don’t pick up our Bibles and read His words of comfort. We stop praying. God hasn’t gone away but we have. God knows all about the wicked people who seem to prosper. He will deal with them one day if they persist in their sin. But in the mean time He provides an opportunity for them to repent and turn to Him. One day the scales of justice will be balanced but in this life we have a mission and that includes pressing through our troubles and keeping short accounts with God. Oh, and by the way, we tell the wicked about Jesus, and His saving grace.

Dear God. You had a plan for the salvation of mankind. And we deeply thank You for Jesus, Your precious Son, for forgiving us our sins. Amen.

Answer Me, God!

Posted on by korgrocker

“Answer me when I call to you, O God who declares me innocent. Free me from my troubles. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer.”
Psalm 4:1 NLT

What sort of relationship do we have with God? Do we bow and scrape before a holy God, afraid to speak out of turn in case we get zapped by a Heavenly lightning bolt? Are we fearful of a God who we perceive as being a cosmic policeman, wielding a truncheon, stern and unforgiving, never approachable as a friend? Is God to us a benign and detached elderly figure with a long white beard, leaning over the banisters of Heaven and observing what is going on in the world and in our lives, but never interfering much, if at all? Is our God someone we plead with when we experience troubles and problems? Or is our approach to God like that of David’s, robust and fearless, sure of his relationship with His Lord?

David knows that his sins are forgiven and he is innocent, so he demands from God, His loving Father, an answer to his prayers for freedom from his “troubles” and for God to have “mercy” upon him. God of course has mercy on us sinful men and women; if He hadn’t then there would have been no human race. Everyone deserves judgement and punishment for their sinful ways. God provides time for men and women to come in repentance to His Son, and be declared innocent before Him. But freedom from “troubles”? Can God answer that prayer? Will a convicted criminal, who prays that prayer be immediately released from prison? Will a child who breaks a school window in a fit of rage be forgiven from the consequent “trouble”? Freedom from troubles, just in response to a prayer, no matter how heart felt? Be assured, we live in a moral universe and punishment for our sins will happen either in this world or the next.

If we live God’s way, then our propensity for experiencing “troubles” will reduce. Psalm 19:7-8, “The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living”. So a prayer for freedom from troubles will be answered, not by an immediate release from the consequences of our bad choices and behaviour, but by a formula for living a life in a way that will avoid most troubles in the first place. 

The kingdoms of Light and darkness are colliding more frequently these days, and troubles for God’s children are on the increase. But our Heavenly Father is there with us declaring us innocent as we follow His ways.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your loving kindness and mercy, that follows us, even pursues us, every day of our lives. Amen.

Hated Disciples

Posted on by korgrocker

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.”
John 15:18-19 NLT

Isn’t it strange, that the disciples, who did so much in those early days and years as they went around preaching the Gospel and healing the sick, would end up being hated. Men who anxiously and diligently tried to connect people with a loving God who wanted all men to join Him. Paul wrote this to Timothy, “ …  God our Saviour, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. … ” (1 Timothy 2:3-6 extracted), and John 3:16-17 deserves a mention, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him“. Our God, who has given more for mankind than we can ever get our minds around, ends up being hated, and His followers as well. Men and women, who ever since, have tried to share the wonderful news about Jesus with so many but instead have been rejected, hated, and even killed. What would an alien think, looking on from outer space, at a situation where human beings hated the very One who created them, and in the process hated those who tried to reconcile them to their loving Heavenly Creator God. They would look, I’m sure, for another cause of such irrational behaviour.

Our helpful alien would perhaps find another life source that was causing the problem. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God”. Blinded minds. Minds filled with devil-inspired strange thoughts and ideologies. Minds filled with lies and wickedness. Minds reprogrammed to hate God and anyone who wants to acknowledge Him and follow Him. Minds that are even repudiating the very consequences of their God-denial, boastfully rejecting even the very concept of judgement for their sins and wickedness, a judgement that has to take place in our moral universe. And in it all the believers in God, lovingly fronting up His gracious presence, are hated, despised and even killed. History is punctuated by many Christian martyrs, murdered for the “crime” of believing in God and trying to help others to believe in Him too. 

We pilgrims must indeed face into the sober fact that we are hated by those around us, to varying degrees, and depending on where we live. We dare to be different, following a different path, refusing to bow our knees to different faiths, beliefs and ideologies. We tramp on in our life journey, taking every opportunity to live in God’s Kingdom, following His ways, and turning our backs on a world that doesn’t know Him. We are beacons of hope in a hopeless world. We season our communities by our presence and our willingness to show others a better way. Our faith will hopefully not lead to a premature death, but it will impact our standing in a worldly pecking order in our jobs and communities. We stand up against the issues of the day such as abortion, gender, conversion therapy, and similar legislation that opposes and encroaches on the sanctity of God’s order. And in the process we are arrested, hassled and hated. Not for us pilgrims the compromise adopted by some denominations to accept secular values instead of maintaining the purity of the faith.

Jesus warned His disciples about what was to come, but we read what he said in John 16:33, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world”. Whatever we experience in this life will be of no consequence when we stand before Jesus and hear those words, “Well done …” What a God! What a Saviour! 

Thank You Lord, the One who made being children of God possible. Amen.