“I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from Me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged Me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form the light and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.”
(Isaiah 45:5-7)
If you were with us this past Sunday, you will remember that I preceded my sermon with a few words concerning what has been taking place in our nation over the last week. “Chaos in the Capitol” was the headline of so many papers. It has been the lead story on most all of the news stations and the interesting thing is that there is not one thing that anybody can do to bring an end to all that has been taking place over the past year. This has been going on for a year already and it has hopefully culminated with what happened last week, but who knows? As I was driving home from church this past Sunday, I made a few phone calls to some of our shut-ins and one in particular was really shaken by what has been going on. After telling me that she was scared she said “pastor, I don’t know what to do” and she began to get very emotional. If any one of us were to spend the majority of our time on Facebook and watching the news, it will shake anyone to their core if they do it long enough. Her question was “pastor, what do I do?”
How would you answer her? What advice would you give to someone who asks that question? We often times like to come up with something that I like to call a “little diddly” that is nice, catchy, and it usually rhymes. Do nice little Hallmark poems or cute little sayings cut it for you? I am grateful to God that He provided for me His Word, that same passage from Isaiah 45 that I shared with our church family Sunday morning before my sermon. “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from Me there is no God.” When I read something like that, I have to think that He has more to say, and sure enough He does. He tells me that He will strengthen me even though I cut Him out of the picture over and over again. Why would God strengthen me? Because His desire is that people who are watching me and His hand at work in my life, might take notice that there is no God besides Him. Again He says “I am the LORD, and there is no other.” Do you get it? This next thing might be a little shocking to some of you but it does answer the question “Who Knows?” “I form the light and create disaster;” I want to remind you that the Bible does not center on the United States of America, but God is all about His glory and His children. We are His children! If you are a Christian, you are one of His children! That is awesome!!! The “Chaos in the Capitol” is not a surprise to God. In fact, if you are having trouble wrapping your arms around all of this read on “I, the LORD, do all these things.” Did you catch that? It’s pretty clear, don’t you think? God is busy; His hand is at work.
Are you looking to the news channels for answers? Are you looking for one political party or the other to come up with the right answers or a nice formula to get this all worked out? Why not go to the author of all of this? Why is it that the last thing that we do, once we have exhausted all of our other means of getting answers, why is it that it is then that we go to God? I just do not get it, and yet we are prone to do that! God has promised that He will strengthen you, even though you have yet to acknowledge Him, because His plan is that the people of this earth will know that there is no God besides Him. Why not go to Him first and ask Him what He is doing? He can handle any question that you can throw at Him. Don’t ever forget that there is coming a day, and I am beginning to think that it is going to be pretty soon, when every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess and proclaim that Jesus is LORD!!!! (Philippians 2:9-11) Can you see it happening? Do you think that God might have a plan? Do you think that He just might be setting things in motion?
In Luke 21, Jesus tells His disciples that there are going to be some drastic changes coming and they ask Him “…when will these things happen?” Jesus tells them about all kinds of things that are going to be happening, things that are similar to what is happening today. Jesus tells them that these things will precede His second coming and He says “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” As a Christian, the only reason you should hang your head is if you are bowing it in prayer. I do want to strongly encourage you to pray like you never have before. Pray for the salvation of your loved ones and for friends, and then when you are done praying, lift your heads, look up and you just might want to say “Perhaps today?”
What did I tell that lady to do? I encouraged her to spend more time in her Bible reading about the One who does know what to do. I told her to read that passage in Isaiah and really spend some time meditating on it. I encouraged her to talk to God about it and to ask Him any question that she wanted. I encouraged her to pray like she never has before for her unsaved children. And finally I encouraged her to overwhelm herself with gratitude to God because she is a child of the One who does know. Perhaps you might want to do the same?