One More Response to Newtown, Ct.

For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon Him? Deuteronomy 4:7 

Is it wrong to be silent when such an atrocity has occurred? Could I possibly have anything to add to the discussion that would help a grieving parent or family member? Will my written prayer bring any more comfort to a traumatized child who saw things they should not have seen, than my verbal or mental prayer to the Sovereign God of the universe?

I am one of those, “but what can I do?” people.   I know there are important issues that need to be discussed but I fear they are not being discussed in the right context. On Facebook I have seen a great deal of discussion about gun control and mental health. Some are thoughtful and some were too much, too soon for me. These discussions, at least so far, have not included God or what His word says about these things.

Is anyone asking, “What is God doing?” Is what I can do important if it is not in response to what He is doing?  I can pray for comfort for those involved. I can pray for the peace of the kids who saw too much. I will be praying for one family who I learned about. The parents are taking four hour shifts at night so they will be awake when their seven year old wakes up with a nightmare. He saw more than any seven year old should ever see, according to his mother. I thank God he has an intact family so he has such great support.

The prayer that I am praying and that I want other Christians to pray is, “What, God? What are you doing? What is it that we need to see that we are not seeing, and to hear that we are not hearing, and to do that we are not doing?”

I have the same speculations everyone else does. As a nation we have taken God out of school, and anything else we could. We have killed so many babies that it is hard to listen to the hypocritical abortion advocate bemoan the loss of twenty more children. Our divorce rate is so high there are fatherless boys and young men with no role model everywhere. Many people are more interested in getting rid of the guns than they are about getting rid of the issues in our society that lead to the misuse of them.

And the church remains silent.

We want to think that the judgment we see or the warnings we hear are for the unbeliever. In our churches we are praying for the families who lost children and have suffered from the experience. This is good and right. We need to have compassion on the hurting. But, what about the problems that are screaming for our attention? What is God asking His people to do or to say that may be as uncomfortable for us as standing up to that shooter was for the victims?

Jeremiah warned Israel about their national pride, I am seeing a lot of that. We are quick, as a nation, to rally around the wounded and hurt, we are quick to speak of evil and how we will stand together in the face of it. Three weeks pass and we are back to worshipping football and “Downton Abbey” and our convictions are forgotten.

In Jeremiah 13:9 -11 Jeremiah brings warning to Israel  “Thus says the LORD: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing. For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.” But they would not listen!

Are we asking God what He is doing and listening to how He responds? What is He saying through this tragedy? I do not know the mind of God regarding what He will bring out of circumstances like this recent shooting.  But I can extract from His Word that He does not want other gods to take His place as the Most High God.  He is the God who is near, so when we throw Him out of our public institutions, we are sending a clear message that we do not want to listen to Him.

This nation has lost its Compass. God was a part of who we were and what we talked about for many years. He is a jealous God, we can’t expect to throw Him out of the public eye and not get a just reaction from Him in return. He is not a God who sits on the sidelines, He wants to be in the action. We, as a nation,  have asked Him to leave.

As one who likes to “do” something about things, I recognize that all I can do is continue to teach the Word of God to anyone who will listen, especially considering I fear a time when it will be far more difficult to do so. It hardly seems like enough when such tragedy has fallen on others. The next step is to pray for the victims. Tragedy has entered their lives in the worst way. My heart is sick for them.

Then, I will continue to pray for God to speak to me about what he is doing and how I am to respond.

Verses to meditate on:

Psalm 73:28  But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

Haggai 2:17  I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the LORD.

Hebrews 11:6  And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.