I have always wondered how I, as a follower of God, am supposed to respond to suffering; especially suffering that is far away suffering in situations that I can not physically change. As history fanatic I have read many stories of suffering, pain, and death. I have looked at many pictures. It is a kind of conditioned response for me to harden myself to suffering. When I read a story of pain I can literally feel the objectivity take hold of me.
But this is not what God would call me to. In Psalm 10 the writer, the psalm does not say who wrote it, writes about evil.
1 “Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? 2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak…” Have you every seen a situation and thought, “God, where are you?”
That is what we are supposed to say! David, a man after God’s own heart, question why God did not destroy the wicked. David appealed to God; he reminded God that the wicked were harming people.
But David does not live in this wondering and funk. David (or who ever wrote this) reminds himself and us that God is completely sovereign.
14 “But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it and take it in hand.” We see that God almighty, as he has promised, is in control. We see there is hope.
No matter what happens, God is in control. The Devil did not sneak around behind God’s back and do his devilish and evil things. No God sees everything. God knows who is in pain and he his infinitely better able to help those people then we are. God is wiser then us. His system may not make sense to us. But it is wise and kind and just.
We do not have to pray down God’s stingy kindness on “poor schleps” that are in pain. God is completely kind. I do no understand how it works. But I do know that if we want to follow a biblical example we must pray for those in pain.
This is logical. Can you help the people or the families of the people who died in the recent spate of school shootings? Can you free, feed comfort all the millions of Christians who are being beaten, displaced and imprisoned for the faith? Can you help all the people who are displaced and starving in the Sudan? Can you give them food? Can you give them comfort? We should try. But we should also pray. All of us can not go to Africa. We can all pray. When we see pain and suffering we should not wait for Bono to go and fix it. We should pray!
This is part of our worship of God. Worship is not just about singing. It is about living. We are to live lives as the bless God’s name. For some reason God, in his great kindness and wisdom, has decided that we are to be his light on this earth. He has chosen that we are to aid people. The first step in aiding someone, when we see pain, is to pray.
