Where Is God When It Doesn't Stop?

The night before Jesus died, He told His disciples there is going to be trouble in this world.

If God is good, and He can do anything, then why doesn't He stop it?

Most of us never get a straight answer. You get a shrug, or a verse thrown at you sideways by someone who has never lost anything.

God never explained it to Job either. Job lost his children, his health, and everything he owned, and he asked. God talked with him for four chapters and never once gave him the reason.

What He gave three men in a furnace was Himself.

"Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."

Daniel 3:25 (KJV)

Those three got thrown into that furnace for refusing to bow down to a gold statue a king built. The king watched them go in and counted three. Then he looked into the flames and counted four.

God was in the fire with them.

Those three walked out of that furnace without a burn on them. Their clothes didn't even smell like smoke.

You keep asking God to put the fire out. He climbed in with you.

The night before all of that happened to Him, Jesus was sitting at a table with His disciples. Be of good cheer, He told them. I have overcome the world. He said it knowing exactly what was coming for Him in a few hours.

You're going to go through hard things in this life. There will be stretches where God feels completely silent, but that's your feelings talking. He's in the fire with you the whole time.

That's who is with you in what you're going through right now, even when you can't feel Him and nobody gives you a reason for any of it.

Here's what to do with the question today:

1. Take the question to Him first.

Ask Him all of it, in the words you actually use. He's never turned His back on someone who came at Him angry.

2. Ask Him to get in it with you.

Pick the hour you already dread, the one you know is coming today. Ask Him into that hour before it gets here, and then go looking for the fourth man while you're standing in it.

3. Go to the word

We tend to want to "feel" God's presence. Instead of feeling, we can go to what He's already said. Think back on the scripture and you'll see that he's never truly abandoned anyone.

PRAYER

Almighty God, I can't look at some of what happens in this world, and I can't understand it.

I've wondered if You even see it, and if You care.

Thank You that Jesus stood at a grave and cried before He raised him.

Thank You that He got into the fire of this world, took the worst of it, and rose.

Today I bring You the question instead of carrying it alone.

Be the fourth man in my fire.

Make me the kind of person who sits down in someone else's ashes.

I trust You have overcome this world, even on the days I can't see it.

In Jesus' beautiful name we pray. Amen.