23 September 2015 - when all seems lost

He said to them, 
“Take nothing for the journey,
neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money,
and let no one take a second tunic.
Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there.

We are on a journey through life and we need to learn to rely on the providence of God.

In many ways "we have been delivered up, we and our kings and our priests, to the will of the kings of foreign lands" but even here God is not powerless. Though he has scattered us among the Gentiles he has shown us his greatness even here.

Again, God is not powerless. Even if we are slaves to a secular state arbitrarily imposing its will on us we must not give up. We must not accept the status quo.

but in our servitude our God has not abandoned us;
rather, he has turned the good will
of the kings of Persia toward us.

It is true that we no longer find ourselves living in a Christian culture. It is true that inertia is no longer sufficient to keep people on a moral path. It is even true that many of the cultural battles we face now seem unwinnable. But God can still turn the good will of the leaders of our nation toward us.

We must, with Ezra, rise in our own wretchedness, with penitent hearts, with cloak and mantle torn acknowledging our own guilt and wicked deeds. No wonder we can't win these battles. No wonder we're in such a difficult spot. We tried to do this ourselves? Really? Look at us! How could we ever create the city of God on earth when we are sinful men and women. Yet in spite of our guilt we stretch out our hands to the LORD our God. In spite of the fact that we don't really have anything that can help us on this journey we now trust in his providence. We had been trying to get by with our own walking stick, sack, food, money and surplus tunics. But it wasn't enough. We're empty and we realize it. And so our hands are now free. We lift them to the LORD and entrust ourselves to him.

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling (cf. 1 Tim. 2:8).

When we trust the LORD he can show us his greatness even in our nation, even in our day, even, finally, when the battle seems lost. 

In the land of my exile I praise him
and show his power and majesty to a sinful nation.

Our praise of God in spite of our own insufficiency allow him to reveal his power in our midst. Let us praise him "with full voice."