FBC Daily Devotional – January 19, 2022

Well, a good morning, a good Wednesday morning to you. How are you doing on this fine day, middle of the week?

Hope your week is going well. Have you observed this, that people who really have no use for God in terms of a day -to -day existence and even would question his existence, they deny him as the

Creator, that nevertheless, when some catastrophe strikes, some great crisis hits, some like we've seen in our our own nation in recent weeks, the crises of COVID, of the pandemic, the crisis of these terrible fires that hit in Philadelphia and New York, and the weather crises of horrible tornadoes and weather, you know, other weather related things.

When these kind of crises hit, it seems like there are always people come out of the woodwork and want to know, you know, where was

God in this? Why did God do this? Why did God let this happen? If God's a good God, you know, and they just rail against God.

But how many times do people, do you hear people say, I wonder if there is something in us that has caused this to come about, that is the root of this disaster?

Maybe not a direct correlation, but you know, like because of our departure from, you know, the ways of God and morality and righteousness and so forth, that God has brought this on or allowed this disaster.

In other words, it's our responsibility. It's our fault. We are, God is holding us accountable for our behavior.

How many times do you hear that? Never. I mean, I've never heard it on a public scale.

I hear preachers question that from time to time, and I've also heard preachers who bring that up get blasted by the community.

How dare you say such a thing as that? How insensitive and how heartless and all the rest of that kind of stuff. I remember years ago, one preacher who who did talk like that, it was when the the

Challenger, Space Shuttle Challenger, exploded, and it was, I mean, it just shocked the nation.

And when that happened, I remember an old, old pastor. He'd been in the ministry for years and years and years.

I mean, he didn't come out and just blast the culture or people or anything like that, but he just responded this way.

He said, I wonder what God is wanting us to know. I wonder what

God is trying to tell us in this. That, I think, is a good response.

Now, the reason I bring all that up is because of what we read in Proverbs 19 and verse 3.

I looked at this verse in a couple of different translations, and I prefer the way the

ESV translates it. And here's why. The New King James translates it, translates verse 3 this way.

It says, the foolishness of a man twists his way and his heart frets against the

Lord. Now, that might be understood or interpreted in some ways that I don't think are necessarily helpful.

In other words, you know, fretting against the Lord, he's like worried about, you know, the

Lord. I think the ESV gets a better sense of what that verse is really saying.

Listen to the way it translates it. Verse 3 says, when a man's folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the

Lord. Now, that's a better translation, I think, that gives a better sense of what's going on in the circumstances.

Here's a guy who has, in his foolishness, departed from the ways of the

Lord and rejected God's Word, rejected God's way, and as a result, his behavior has brought crisis in his life.

It's brought his way to ruin, and instead of looking within and acknowledging, confessing his responsibility for the ruin of his life, instead, what does he do?

Shakes his fist in the face of God, rages against God. That, I think, is what we see over and over and over again when catastrophes and disasters hit and strike, and on a very personal level, as well as a national or even a community level.

So, I think we want to be careful. I don't think we want to jump to conclusions and be insensitive and rage, but I do think that we would be wise, when a way comes to ruin, to stop and think, ask ourselves the question, has my folly contributed to this ruin?

Or, speaking collectively, has our foolishness brought about this ruin?

And I think if we ask that question honestly and look within honestly, we'll come to some answers that may very well, may very well, help us to avoid the folly of raging against the

Lord, and maybe bring us to repentance. Would that that were the case?

Father, help us to be wise in our responses to those those ruins that come into our lives on a personal level, and maybe in a community or a national level, and I pray that when we realize our folly is at the root of it all, may we be quick to repent.

We pray in Jesus' name. All right. Well, have a good rest of your