By Katelyn Hunt
With all of these natural disasters happening it simply seems fitting to talk about how God reveals himself in these tough times. We all want to talk about how bad the (insert natural disaster here) was, and simultaneously put on a brave face for everyone. A few weeks pass and we come to the sobering realization of what has happened and the only questions left are, “Why me?”, and, “Why would God do this?”
There is sin everywhere. It seems as though it is swallowing the world whole. But, when God says he’ll take away sin, he doesn’t say the sin of human beings and that’s it. He says he will take away the sin of the world. These wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes are a consequence of the power of sin. Devastation is a consequence of the power of sin. Why is this important to remember? Because when we ask, “Why me?”, the devil is winning. He has distracted us from the truth of God and uses these disasters to push God into our coat closet until we have time for him again.
The Holy spirit won’t let Satan win though. For as many people that are shoving God aside, there are ones that are sent out to spread the Gospel. Christ Jesus takes these devil-tempting events and uses us as his instruments to spread the Word of God. Sin may seem to be swallowing the world whole, but not forever. So when we ask, “Why me?”, remember that we sin every day and we are daily and abundantly forgiven. Instead of pushing God to the side during those times of crisis and temptation, turn to him and depend on the Holy Spirit to bring hope and comfort through the Gospel and his gifts to those who are suffering.
In the midst of so much change, there is something that should stay constant. For example, I was sitting in bible class the week after Harvey hit and my Pastor said “I got a call today and someone asked ‘what are we going to do now?’ and I simply said, ‘the same thing we always do.’” This really opened my eyes and taught me something I didn’t know I didn’t know. Many churches in the area were closing up or changing all of their service times because of the disaster, but we don’t need to change. We are simply sharing the Word of God about Savior Jesus and his gifts that is published in the Scriptures and there is nothing stronger and more comforting than that.
So instead of thinking about what we are doing, how we are doing, or why we are going through everything, be still and wait on the Holy Spirit to do his thing, and work through us to reveal Christ Jesus to those whose faith is weak, and those who don’t believe.
Katelyn Hunt studies journalism at Sam Houston State University.
