Ask The Lord For Wisdom For These Perilous Times
Kato Mivule | April 26, 2011
With increasingly random destructive events happening in various places around the globe, there is always a question within ourselves about what one should do. Yet this very genuine question is sometimes taken as a point of weakness. However, looking at scriptures, it is a sign of humbleness and maturity that we should go before The Lord and ask for His direction in prayer.
This year alone is already setting a record in terms of catastrophic events related to nature. The earth seems to be in some type of convulsion. Yet these events are not just limited to one geographic location but spread out across the earth. The question then is there any place that is safe? We desire as humans always to run some place for safety. Yet, even with locations that seem to have no convulsions of nature, people seem to be in revolt and upheaval, from the Middle East to Africa, despots and their regimes are having to face off populations tired of oppression and poverty.
So, what should one do and where should one go as a Christian? There are those certainly using this occasion to instill fear, sell books, and profit from catastrophes. Others have resorted to interpret, re-interpret, schedule, and reschedule Bible Prophecy. Yet, all these things fail as the world becomes more complex and catastrophic events more random than before.
It used to be that when a disaster would strike a geographic area before, a TV Evangelist would use Bible Prophecy to blame a certain population for their sins, claiming that it was God's judgment on that very population, yet now, that catastrophic event by nature would likely happen in the TV Evangelist’s backyard. So, is the Televangelist the sinner? What about Christians who die in these events? What answers should we give to their relatives, that they died because they were sinners? So, these questions are not trivial and don't have simple answers.
So, there is a tendency to look at things in our own fashioned and schemed discrete and linear structures into which we place Bible Prophecy and try to 'box' God, then we sell that as Bible Prophecy and boast around that we have all the answers to the on going situation. We try to 'map' God, we have our own plans that make us feel safe, secure, and 'justified' before God. We teach that events are supposed to happen in a discrete way, yet still, it is until we are tested and found wanting, when disaster hits our own backyards, and we find out that our “answers” and solutions don't work.
So, what am I driving to here? The point is simple, let us go before The Lord Jesus Christ and ask for wisdom, not merely earthly wisdom, although that is not bad but let us ask for spiritual wisdom. This means acknowledging before The Lord that we don't know it all, that we are weak and in this very complex world we live in, we need His guidance. Let us acknowledge that we don't have all the answers as to why things are happening the way they are but that we trust in His Providence, that He will lead us, guide us, provide for us, that He The Lord is in control, and nothing is taking Him by surprise. Yes, our faith and trust in The Lord is being tested in these matters...
James 1:3-8 KJV Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. (4) But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (5) If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (6) But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. (7) For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. (8) A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Yes, The Lord has given us the big picture, we pray and long for His Kingdom to come and His will be done on earth as in Heaven but the details as we travel to that destination are never given to us.
It is at that point that we should seek His face and ask for wisdom from Him, and yes wisdom that is based in Truth and Truth in His Word and sayings, wisdom that discerns righteously.
Ask yourself how would The Lord respond to that particular event...and there is spiritual wisdom in that too. Let's remember that The World is not going to end tomorrow, if this is a bumpy ride, then fasten your seat belts as the times ahead will even get more turbulent. And yes, you will need spiritual wisdom on how to respond and live in such events.
Ephesians 5:15-17 KJV See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, (16) Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (17) Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
It used to be that we were told that the rapture would happen before all these global catastrophes would happen, yet, it seems day by day we get caught unaware, from the Indonesia Tsunami, the Katrina hurricane, the Haiti earthquake, the Japan earthquake and Tsunami, the revolts in the Middle East and Africa, etc, all these things are happening right before our eyes, that is if we survive them.
We have so much depended on the Western bible theology that presupposes that God will come and simply take us out of these global catastrophes before they hit. Western theology has promised us safety and security from catastrophes yet now we are realizing (though some are still stubborn and insist on some form of escape) that we have to live through and respond to these global catastrophic events.
So, the question is, how should we respond as Christians, what should we do? Should we simply run and hide? Now it seems inevitable that we certainly have to respond in a Christian and biblical way to these global tumults, and so the need for spiritual wisdom from The Lord.
Kato M