WRITTEN BY CHERYL WELLS
As I’m writing this, we are about nine days since the flooding started in Siouxland and we are still all in a daze. I wondered if this was the right word to use, because there are many people that have been actively working and helping where they can. That’s amazing and wonderful that so many people have been stepping up and giving in so many ways. Yet, we can still be in a daze – unable to think or react properly. Even as I’m writing this it’s how I feel. I can’t wrap my brain around all that’s happened and how many people have been affected. I also can’t think about how bad it got in some areas because it is so sad to see that much devastation. Our human tendency is to try to not think about it all the time.
We’ve all seen the videos and the pictures, as well as we have our own experience personally or someone that we know. We all have been touched by this in varying degrees. For those that have lost their homes and all their belongings, we are so sorry, and we hurt for you. Forgive us for maybe not knowing what to say or do. Yes, we will come and bring you food and help clean up. Maybe we have let someone move in with us indefinitely. We might donate some things that are needed, and we will support in ways that we hear are a good idea. But the truth is that we are all feeling our human weakness right now. It isn’t that we don’t care about your suffering, but we are having a hard time processing it all. There’s so much to do and we know we can’t do it for everyone. We all have limits.
I can’t even imagine how the people that have lost everything are doing that. They are doing what they have to do to survive today, but they will have to process their grief and trauma sometime also. They are dealing with needing a place to put their head for rest, as well as finding food for themselves and their families. They need clean water and clothes to wear also. They are dealing with unsafe living conditions and have to protect those they love. What about their future finances, and most of them have a job that they can’t get to.
In the midst of all the sorrow and suffering, there is so much uncertainty. We like knowing what we can be sure of. I know there are things in our lives that we can all struggle with that aren’t going the way we want them to. But when all seems to be pulled out from under us at one time, what are we going to do? Who is there to turn to when it is not only you, but all your neighbors, or all of your community? And we are watching this happen in many communities around us. And what about when we watch it happen in our state and our neighboring state, and what about our country? There is so much happening right now in our view, whether it is close up or far away.
We are surely all feeling our humanness and we feel weak. We want to control things, but at times like this we all know that we can’t. But we can cry out to God, the creator of us all, the one who made the earth and sustains it all. He is the one who can bear the burden of it all, and He knows that we are fearful people that try to control. We have an intrinsic need for God that can’t be met any other way. It’s times like these that we really experience our need, and it’s all because of His love for us. Perfect love casts out fear the Bible says. When we really know the perfect love of the Father and His plan for our peace, there is hope. Hope is waiting and believing that the promises of God are coming in the midst of our circumstances. It doesn’t always look like what we think or want, but God is always good, and His love will dispel the fear for those that know and love Him back.
What does all that look like and how do we get there? For me, that’s the most important thing every moment of every day. Here are a few easy steps that would help you to know the love of God today and help you to find peace in the uncertainty of your circumstances.
1. God’s love was shown to us in how He gave His Son, Jesus. Jesus was and is the plan.
“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.” (John 3:16)
2. Our sin stands in the way of us knowing God and experiencing His love through Jesus. Believe and receive His plan for your salvation.
“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin.” (Romans 3:23-25)
3. God’s solution for our need was taken care of at Calvary, and every need we have is taken care of in Jesus.
“When I am afraid, I will put my trust and faith in You. In God, whose word I praise; in God I have put my trust; I shall not fear.” Psalm 56:3,4
“Cast your burden on the Lord (release it) and He will sustain and uphold you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. (Psalm 55:22)
4. Everything we go through is for our good and God promises that He will use it for those that love Him. There is a plan by God in it all.
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
5. We can have hope and peace in any storm because God does not waver in any time of tragedy.
“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise.” (Hebrews 10:23)
God’s love is our deepest taproot, and it doesn’t end. His faithful love endures forever because He is God, He is not a man. He isn’t weak and fearful like us. That brings me peace and hope to think about. He doesn’t make bad things happen, that is not His character. We live in a fallen world and that is so evident all around us. He is with us, and He loves us. He has a plan, and that plan will always come to pass. We can count on it. We know that we are weak, and we can run to God and tell Him. He will give us what we need.
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16)
