Somehow, and not on purpose, when I downloaded a news app on my phone, it started giving me headlines all day – and all night – long. If I had tried to do it, I couldn’t have figured it out.
When I wake up in the night, I check the time and often catch a headline. At 2:20 a.m. Wednesday, I read that more countries were recognizing Palestine as a state. One was Malta. Malta sounded familiar. Wasn’t that the place the Apostle Paul said was unusually kind? For some reason that had stuck in my mind.
I went back to sleep thinking, This is not good. God clearly told Abraham in Genesis 12 that He would bless those who blessed Israel and deal with those who didn’t.
The morning brought news that residents of Hawaii were trying to reach higher ground because of tsunami warnings after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake erupted off the coast of Russia. Before I had my first sip of Dunkin Donuts coffee, I was praying for Hawaii and Israel.
Though the internet says Israel is 6300 miles from me, and Hawaii is 4,481 miles away, I can still connect to the people there through prayer. I can’t physically touch, help, or rescue any of the men, women, boys and girls at either place, but I can ask my Heavenly Father to intervene. I wasn’t running for cover myself yet the thought of all those in trouble weighed heavy.
Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the Bible is alive and active (some translations say living and powerful). That means it applies to any day I’m living in. A Bible verse began stirring in my mind. Something about mountains falling into the heart of the sea. Found it. Psalm 46:1-3 talks about when calamity strikes. Very alive and applicable to this day: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” Totally applies to earthquakes, tsunamis and life in general.
Psalm 46 goes on to give the reason not to fear: “The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress,” verse 7. We are not alone in trouble and do not have to lean on ourselves, on our own strength. We can lean in to Him. Lean ON Him.
Psalm 46:10 is a well-known, yet hard-to-do scripture: “Be still, and know that I am God…” The “be still” part is the difficult part. We want to spring into action, to fix the thing, to overthink the thing. I regularly have to remind myself, “Nothing will happen today that God can’t help me through.” I actually say it out loud so my ears can hear it, my heart will slow its racing, my brain will cease overthinking.
Tsunamis don’t always come with water. Grief, cancer, financial, marital or health problems, and addiction are just a few of the crises that can cause gigantic waves of heartache in a day. What can we do? What should we do?
Before the day gets started, let’s determine to trust in God. No matter what. To believe in Him. No matter what. Even if the earth seems to be giving way beneath our feet. When the mountains around us seem to be quaking. He is our strength. An ever-present help in trouble. Write it. Remember it. Post it. Hang it. Carry it. Share it.