We were awakened this morning by the storm sirens. Not so pleasant an awakening, but I was in good spirits. The storms always seem to remind me of God; that His hand is at work on this earth.
I think about the peoples of West Africa. They are spiritual people – superstitious and believing in a cause and effect relationship in everything. I wonder how they interpret the storms? The rains? The thunder and lighting? Surely they believe that their gods are responsible for every weather event. It seems a shame to me that we have lost this belief. We talk of weather in very scientific terms and matter-of-fact ways. We leave God out of it. After all – we have Doppler radar.
In my daily reading in 1 Samuel Chapter 7 this morning, the Israelites were gathered at Mizpah and Samuel was interceding for them with the Lord. The Philistines came to attack them and the people were frightened but Samuel offered a burnt offering and cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf. The scripture says that the Lord “thundered with a loud thunder against the Philistines” and threw them into a panic. Soon the Philistine army was thoroughly defeated by Israel, and the Israelites lived in peace for many years.
My prayer for the peoples of West Africa is not that they abandon their spirituality, but that they recognize the one true God and worship him in Spirit and Truth. They already recognize the supernatural – I pray that they will come to know ‘Who’ the supernatural is. I pray that they may know the One that sends the rain and the thunder. The One that makes the moon and sun rise in their courses.
My prayer for this nation is that we will once again embrace the spirituality that we have long ago forgotten. We know the one true God already – let us acknowledge him in all our ways. Let us once again recognize and boldly acknowledge that He alone is the One that sends the rain and the thunder. The One that makes the moon and sun rise in their courses.
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