Which Prayers Did God Answer? (A Post-Irma Reflection)

 

As Hurricane Irma approached last week, many people were praying.  They prayed for their personal and family safety.  People prayed for their communities and others who would be impacted by the storm.  Some prayed honest prayers that the storm would go elsewhere or drift out to sea.  Did God hear the prayers of those who averted the storm and ignore the prayers of those who received its full force? Did God choose some prayers over others?  

 

These are real questions people have shared with me over the last few days.  I would never be so bold as to claim to fully understand the workings of God, but I am pretty sure that is not at all how God works.  God doesn’t receive the prayers and cries of the people and then make a determination which ones to honor and which ones to forsake.  This sounds more like the gods of Greek mythology, not the God we meet in the Bible.

 

The God of the Bible is moved by the cries of suffering people.  The God of the Bible responds to the broken lives, pains, and fears of individuals and communities.  As Jesus said, “...everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks the door will be opened”. (Matthew 7:8)  Just look at how Jesus healed the lame and offered fellowship to outcasts and sinners.  Look at how God heard the cries of the Hebrew people while they were enslaved in Egypt.  Look at how God heard the suffering of His people in Babylonian captivity and responded, even after they had turned their backs on God.  Jesus explained that rain falls on both the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45) and love rather than blame is the better course, for that is the way of God.

 

While the Bible doesn’t give simple answers to why bad things happen, it does give a great promise that God is with us in the storm.  God hears our cries and our needs and is moved to compassion.    Whose prayers did God answer last week?  All of them!  There is not a cry uttered upon this earth that is not heard by God...and His heart is moved in love.  I would rather have this truth than simple answers any day. 

 

Together we are the hands and feet of Jesus,

Brett