What Has God Called Us To Do in the Middle of a Tragedy

to the ground and worshipped" (Job 1:20).

He remembered the source of His strength. He remembered the hope of his future. He remembered that God said that He would never leave him nor forsake him. It is rather strange, isn’t it? Everything was lost, and Job fell down on the ground and worshipped.

In essence, Job is saying, "Even though, tragedy has struck my life and I’ve lost it all, I trust God and I know that everything will be all right." We read in Job 19:25,26
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God.

It is my hope that we keep our faith and be reminded that we are not alone. I believe that God will supply us with a power that is greater than ourselves to bring us through the difficulties that we face.

In 1 John 5:12 – we see these words: He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Jesus said in John 3:18 - Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

You see, outside of Christ we are all condemned. And the Bible says that all have sinned. And so if we are not in Christ, we are punished for our sins, as we deserve.

You have to remember something very important here: there are no innocent people in hell. Only sinners are in hell. And the Bible is very clear that we are all born as sinners with no hope of heaven on our own merit.

Jesus offers the chance to escape the punishment if we will only take it.

2. The second thing that I think God has called us to do is to pray!

This is something that we can all do. I realize that we all can’t go to the Gulf region. I also know that there will be some going but not all of us can go. I also know that we all can’t house some of the evacuees, we all can’t send supplies, but there is something that we can all do and that is to pray for our friends and our brothers and sisters in the Lord. What kind of prayer list do we need to have and what do we need to be praying for?

Pray that the needed manpower, funds, and other resources would get to the needy quickly, and that fraud and corruption would not rear its ugly head to delay the needed help.

Pray that survivors would be found quickly, they are still finding survivors almost two weeks into this thing. And pray that families would be re-united, there are so many families who haven’t heard from one another.

Pray for and give to the relief effort.
Second: Pray for the Christian message of hope. In the middle of all this, the message of Christ can shine, bringing hope to those without it, and offering comfort as people find out that the God of the universe was not asleep at the wheel, was not busy, or whatever during this tragedy, He was right there, and He still is there, wanting to reach out and comfort the people affected. Pray that the message would be given clearly, and that those who hear it will hear the compassion imbedded in the good news of Jesus.

Third: Pray for God’s comfort for those who have lost loved ones.

No amount of words from us will be able to fill this need. This is a God-sized need, and only God can fill it adequately. And so I encourage you to lift up these people, asking God to move in as only He