DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- GOD'S PURPOSE FOR DISASTERS

DAD'S RAMBLINGS – GOD'S PURPOSE FOR DISASTERS

" 'I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; Yet you have not returned to Me,' says the LORD. 'Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; (Amos 4:11-12)

What would it take to make a nation turn to God?  What sort of tragedy or other disaster would it take to cause people to seek the Lord?  

I believe that God allows or even causes disaster to come to a people with one goal – to cause them to seek God.

For Israel, Amos lists some of the things that God caused to bring the nation back to Him.  He gave them cleanness of teeth and lack of food – or famine.  He withheld rain that caused drought. He blasted them with blight and mildew and sent locusts.  He sent plagues.  He overthrew them.  But the response was always the same:  " 'Yet you would not return to Me,' " said the LORD.

In our beloved nation, God has allowed or sent so many similar things – terrorist attacks, natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts and floods, and plagues of sickness and pandemics.  In former times, people prayed and sought God's help.  But it seems to me that that practice is getting less and less common the further our nation moves away from honoring our Creator.  I wonder if God is saying, "Yet you would not return to me."

Even as Christians, we are sometimes slow to seek God in times of trouble.  Only as a last resort after trying everything else do we call out to God.  Let us seek God first.  That is His desire and purpose.

Love, Dad