The media points out destruction and pain with pictures of loss, and sadness. O, how our hearts break.
O, the mysteries.
Could it be that God allows these trials to gather His lonely people together, to pour out His grace.
God’s ways are true and righteous altogether.
How our hearts are touched with each story of rescue. The sacrificial care given, the present provision. How mankind moves to help the hurting, to provide counsel for the broken hearted, to bring water to the thirsty.
Shelters are opened, people open their doors, meals are prepared, work crews move, and so much more . . .
How our hearts are ultimately touched . . . by God:
Gather together to Me My saints [those who have found grace in My sight], those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.
And the heavens declare His righteousness — rightness and justice; for God, He is judge. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! Psalm 50:5,6, Amplified.
Perhaps a Psalm, or words of an old hymn strike a chord of calm, and quiet within. Circumstances don’t change. Days are still troublesome and hard. But there has been an exchange.
The fret and anxiety has been given over to Him . . . Have we been seeking Him? His face? His daily word?
The mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and calls the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
Our God comes, and does not keep silence; a fire devours before Him, and round about Him a mighty tempest rages. (Psalm 50: 1-3 Amplified).
The Word of God instructs. The Word speaks. The Word helps our hard hearts and blind eyes to see.
He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that He may judge His people: Gather together to Me My saints . . .
Hear, O My people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify to you and agains you; I am God, your God . . . Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving; and pay your vows to the Most High, And call on Me in the day of trouble . . . (Psalm 50: 7,14).
I will deliver you, and you shall honor and glorify Me . . .” (Psalm 50: 15).
And so I train my hands for war, so to speak, and open an old hymn of Fanny Crosby:
Pass me not, O gentle Savior; Hear my humble cry! While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by.
Let me at Thy throne of mercy Find a sweet relief; Kneeling there in deep contrition, Help my unbelief.
Trusting only in Thy merit, Would I seek Thy face, Heal my wound-ed bro-ken spirit Save me by Thy grace.
Thou, the Spring of all my comfort, More than life to me! Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee?
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry! While on others Thou art calling. do not pass me by. (Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior, Fanny J. Crosby)
The Psalms turn around my thinking. The hymns give me cleansing words as I pray with hope to believe.
Let’s praise God in the darkness.
Let us praise God in the storm.
Let’s have thankful hearts that God finds us worthy,
to be a light in the night, as we wait together for morn.
Let us proclaim the Comfort He has brought us.
He has renewed, refreshed. He has made us Re-born.
He has given us rest.