January 11: Of Storms, Drowning Pigs and Choices

Genesis 24:52-26:16

Matthew 8:18-34

Psalm 10:1-15

Proverbs 3:7-8

"Why, Lord, do you stand far off?

     Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?"

Which of use who seeks the Lord HASN'T uttered this prayer?  Which of us hasn't been so beset by problem and trouble and hopelessness and despair that we haven't cried these words out to God?  Which of us hasn't wondered if He'd forgotten about us, or worse - if He'd ever cared for us at all?

The psalm was written centuries ago; it could have been written today.  Leaving aside anything specific we might be going through ourselves - problems with health, with marriages and children and parents and siblings, problems with money (or lack thereof) - it is so easy to look at how the arguably the most abundantly blessed nation in the history of man and see how so many have not only rejected God's authority, they reject the idea of His very existence.  Why does God permit all this?  

Sometimes it is possible to understand why.  He slept in the boat to give his disciples the opportunity to witness proof of His authority.  He caused the pigs to drown themselves to save the demon possessed men, and again bear witness to His authority. The thing is, as the disciples struggled with the storm, and as the owners saw their pigs drown, none of them had any way of knowing God's purpose.  At the moment of greatest trial, though, they had a choice.  

The owners of the pigs and their neighbors - they chose fear, and pleaded with God to leave.  The disciples went in the opposite direction - they cried out to God for salvation.  We don't know if those townspeople ever learned what they had chased away that day; we do know how abundantly God used, and blessed, all but one of the disciples in the boat. 

Father when difficult times come and we know enough to recognize they could only have come to pass because You permitted them, give us further wisdom to respond to them not by rejecting You for Your difficult choices for us, but by crying out to You for the strength and salvation we need to see us through.