TWISTED LIVES

by T. L. Wiens

I stare at the images of Moore, Oklahoma and cry. I listen to the news reports. One reporter says, “it will take days maybe even weeks to rebuild.” What? This is going to take years. Some will never be rebuild (and I’m not just talking about houses.). No one who lived through it will ever be the same. How this disaster changes these people will be up to the individual.

When I read comments on Youtube videos, there are many who doubt the power of prayer. Others who send fire and brimstone messages of judgement to the survivors. Some wonder why these people remain in such a climatically volatile area of the world. There are those who offer help in many different forms including prayer, volunteering and sending money.

What I find most interesting is God comes into the conversation. How could He allow this to happen? Why did He allow this to happen? Funny how God gets the blame when things go bad. And I’m not talking about the judgement crowd that points a finger and accuses.

God has many reasons for allowing disasters.

There is a passage in Scripture that I hold onto when faced with disaster.

Romans 8:27-39 says:

“And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things?

If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?

It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I pray for those caught in these storms, facing an unknown future. My hope is not only for their physical safety but also their salvation, their personal understanding of it all. Prayer does make a difference but the answer is not always what we want to hear.

Related articles

• What Can I Pray For? (underthecoverofprayer.wordpress.com)
• Blown Away (underthecoverofprayer.wordpress.com)

Tammy Wiens

Tammy lives in Saskatchewan with her husband. They have four children. She enjoys gardening, walks along the beach and being on the farm. She has a passion for her faith, studying the Bible and prayer.

She has published two books; Where a Little Rain Comes Down and Making the Bitter Sweet. A short story, “May’s First Christmas” appeared in Christmas Chaos, a collection of stories about Christmas experiences that don’t make the fronts of Christmas cards. “Careful What You Whisper” is another short story about Tammy’s experiences after breaking her back. It can be found in A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider. Visit T. L. Wiens for more information about Tammy’s books and workshops.

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