Encouragement

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With this Saturday marking the third anniversary of the single most traumatic event in American history, my heart is aflame with gratitude to the earnest mercy of a living God. Perhaps it seems a strange thing to be grateful since so much woe has befallen us as Americans and we still are caught up in an ongoing struggle with evil.

As the megalithic clouds of the toppled towers of the World Trade Center wafted across the horizon of Manhattan and as the Pentagon lay wounded and bare before the astonished eyes of all Americans, we were not only seized with an overwhelming sense of vulnerability and fear, but with the obscene horror of having lost thousands of men and women, “just like us”, in only a few hours.

For some, the pain is still all too real and time has brought little comfort. For others, I fear that the pain passed too quickly as they turned back to life as usual, shocked but little changed. Perhaps some are even angry with God, shaking their fists at what is interpreted as injustice, apathy and coldness.

But He still holds the keys to healing of the human soul though tragedy may beset us privately and corporately. He alone still can bring a sense of control, purpose and direction that we so earnestly crave and desperately need. He continues to desire to bless us and He waits for us to turn to Him so that He may indeed bring such blessing.

“This is what the Sovereign LORD… says, ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength…. The LORD longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!’” (Isaiah 30:15a, 18 NIV).

Perhaps you struggle with your own “inner demons” that continually haunt, torment and oppress you. Why has He allowed tragedy or pain to come into your life? The question has no trite and easy answer, yet there is a side to your suffering and loss that you need to engage.

“Although the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it’” Isaiah 30:20-21 NIV).

Whatever conclusion at which you are tempted to arrive, the truth of the matter is that God still desires first and foremost that you turn from the “idols” with which we are so easily content and turn to Him wholeheartedly, trusting Him with both your present and your future. “Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a [dirty] cloth and say to them, ‘Away with you!’” (Isaiah 30:22 NIV).

Happily, His hand remains poised to honor and cherish those hearts ready to do just this. “He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful” (Isaiah 30:23 NIV).

Are we not famished for more of God’s spiritual nourishment? Will we not turn to the banquet of holy fellowship that He has promised us?

Though we may be reminded of our frailty this solemn weekend and though the wounds and hurts of the human condition and of our own personal tragedies achingly throb within us, let us each reach out to grasp the hand of the One Who would bring healing to us.

“In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of His people and heals the wounds He inflicted” (Isaiah 30:25-26 NIV).

Open your parched soul to the Living Water He alone can send. Allow your darkened eyes to be filled with the Light of His truth. Genuinely seek the healing that only the balm of His grace and mercy can bring to heavy and hurting hearts. Seek His face in quietness and in trust that He may bring you that for which your soul really hungers, for “blessed are all who wait for Him!” (from Isaiah 30:18b NIV).

Copyright © Thom Mollohan.

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