Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD ... From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind … [and] considers everything they do. No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength…But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine."¹

I recall having read in a college newspaper about a student who painted in big white letters right across the side of a garbage truck, "Where is God?" Perhaps he was thinking at some level, why does God allow garbage to happen?

It's an age-old question, as old as Job and as fresh as today: "Where is God when tragedy strikes … when a loved one dies and the heart is torn with grief … when innocent children are kidnapped, sexually abused, and murdered? And where was he on September 11, 2001? And again, when terrorist bombs blasted a resort hotel in Bali? Or when a sniper in the Washington, D.C. area was shooting and killing innocent people at random?"

I don't want to sound callous by any means but we are asking the wrong question because God is where He always was and always is. The Apostle Paul said it best, in that God "is not far from each one of us. 'For in Him we live and move and have our being.'"²

So the question needs to be, "Not where is God, but where is man?"

Our problem lies in the fact that we as nations have left Godâ€"or are fast leaving Him. As God's Word, the Bible, says, "Blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord."³ And what of those nations whose God is not the Lord? Perhaps history can best answer that question.

But the great tragedy is, as Friedrich Hegel said, "The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please open our eyes and help us to see that when we leave You, forsake Your Word and discard Your commandments, we open the door to evil. Grant that we will see in today's senseless acts of terror a wakeup call to turn back to You. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."

1.  Psalm 33:12-19 (NIV).
2. See Acts 17:24, 26-28.
3. Psalm 33:12.

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