TRUSTING GOD IN THE FIRE

My niece and her family recently lost their home and belongings to the wildfires in Texas.  When devastation occurs we often wonder how could God have allowed this to happen?

In his book "Trusting God", Jerry Bridges says "God did not create the universe and everything in it only to walk away to leave it to running on its own.  God has not walked away from the day-to-day control of His creation.  Certainly He has established physical laws by which He governs the forces of nature, but those laws continuously operate according to His sovereign will."   God is in control!  

"He unleashes His lightning beneath the whole heaven

     and sends it to the ends of the earth." 

Job 37:3

"He says to the snow, "Fall on the earth" 

      and to the rain shower, "Be a mighty downpour".  

Job 37:6

"The breath of God produces ice,

and the broad waters become frozen.

He loads the clouds with moisture;

      he scatters His lightning through them.

At His direction they swirl around

     over the face of the whole earth

     to do whatever He commands them.

He brings the clouds to punish men,

     or to water His earth and show His love.

Job 37:10-13

He covers the sky with clouds;

He supplies the earth with rain

and makes grass grow on the hills.

Psalm 147:8

When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar;

He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.

He sends lightning with the rain

and brings out the wind from His 

storehouses.

Jeremiah 10:13

I also withheld rain from you 

when the harvest was still three months away.

I sent rain on one town,

but withheld it from another.

One field had rain;

another had none and dried up.

Amos 4:7

Jerry Bridges says "Note how all these Scriptures attribute all expressions of weather - good or bad- to the direct controlling hand of God.  The insurance companies refer to major natural disasters as "acts of God. The truth is all expressions of nature, all occurrences of weather,whether it be a devastating tornado or a gentle rain on a spring day, are acts of God.  The Bible teaches that God controls all the forces of nature, both destructive and productive, on a continuous moment-by-moment basis. 

God , who is the loving heavenly Father of every true Christian is sovereign over the weather, and He exercises that sovereignty moment by moment."

We don't know the mind of God, we don't know what He has planned for our lives.  We DO know that He is sovereign, He is in control and He is trustworthy.  He will bring beauty out of the ashes.