Welcome to Defender’s Voice. I am Dr.Paul. Thank you for joining us today. Hope you are doing well. Please visit our website www.doctorpaul.org to learn more about this ministry.
Today’s question: in the wake of Texas School shootings, some people said prayers are useless and God should have no place in our discussions. Do God and prayer have any role when tragedies like this happen?
Very good question. Our Q&A channel is all about answering your questions even when things are bad. A gunman killed at least 19 children and two adults in a Texas elementary school. This is the deadliest school shooting since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary a decade ago.
When I heard about this incident, I cried and prayed for the victims and their families. Today parents have no confidence about the safety of their children when they go to a school or playground or shopping mall or even a church. We are truly living in a time that tries men’s souls.
Some people called upon God and for prayers. But some other people have said, ‘your prayers don’t help. God won’t help. We should help ourselves’.
Sadly, Prayer shaming became rampant in our culture. They used to pretend to pray while we were praying. They used to tolerate us while we were praying. They used to ignore us while we were praying. Now, they are mocking us while we are praying. Things have changed a lot.
I come across people who say God and prayer are completely useless and a waste of time. But I beg to differ. If you look at our society, now is the time we need God more than ever before. Let me share 4 ways God is essential to us now:
God, the Value Giver:
God gives us absolute moral values. There is no other source for absolute moral values. God created human beings in his image. That is why human life is so precious and invaluable. Secularism and Darwinism look at human beings as just another animal species born out of luck in the great game of survival. It is only God who says that human beings are uniquely created in his image. That is what makes us human and separates us from the animal kingdom.
Killers have no regard for human life. They have no regard for the lives of even little children. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 19, verse 14. “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these’. Lord Jesus loved little children. He said that we must become like little children to enter the kingdom of God’. Jesus valued the lives of little children.
The regard for human life is in steep decline. We are registering highest rates of violence, murders and mass shootings. Even little children in the schools are not spared. Today we need God more than ever before to teach us the value of a human life.
God, the Scary:
Secondly, we also need God to teach us fear. We read in Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
The philosophy of education is giving and receiving wisdom. It starts with the fear of the Lord. Back in the olden days, every school day would start with Bible reading and prayer. They had zero school shootings. We removed God’s Word from our schools. There is no fear of God to stop the killers. Now, hardly a week goes by without a school shooting.
‘The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding’. True understanding comes from the knowledge of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. That understanding brings a healthy fear of God into our lives. Sadly, this true understanding of God is waning in our time.
We read in Romans 3, ‘their feet are swift to shed blood…there is no fear of God before their eyes’.
Note those words. People running to shed blood, they have no fear of God before their eyes. In other words, the fear of God keeps you from shedding blood.
The fear of God restrains evil. That is another reason why we need God.
God, the Comforter:
Thirdly, we need God because God comforts us in all circumstances. There are pastors right now in Uvalde, Texas comforting the mothers, fathers and grandparents who lost their children.
We read in 2 Corinthians chapter 1
Praise be to the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of compassion
And the God of all comfort,
Who comforts us in all our troubles,
So that we can comfort those
in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves
receive from God
So, God is called the Father of compassion and the
God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles, no matter how tragic they might be. Our blessed Savior shed tears when he met people who were grieving. He experienced their pain. He identified with their loss. When we experience God’s comfort in our lives, we share it with others who are grieving their loss.
Last night, President Biden quoted Psalm 34:18 in his speech,
The Lord is near to the broken-hearted
And saves the crushed in spirit.
The Lord is very near to us when we are broken hearted and crushed in spirit. So, we need God now more than ever before because God is a God of all comfort.
God, the Savior:
Finally God is our Savior. We read in Psalm 50:15
‘Call upon me in the day of trouble
I will deliver you’
God told us to call upon him on the day of trouble. He promised to deliver us.
Last night, I read about a teacher in this Texas school:
Eva Mireles. She was shot and killed by the gunman while she was trying to protect her students. Yesterday this teacher sacrificed her life to save her students.
When I heard about her,I thought of Jesus. He was a teacher who protected his students. When the Roman soldiers went to arrest Jesus and threatened his disciples, Jesus told them, ‘You came for me. let them ago’. Lord Jesus faced his killers with courage while protecting his students.
Prayer gives us courage when we are threatened. God is our Savior. Jesus Christ saves us from our sins and death. He is able to save us from this predicament.
So we should never stop praying. We should never stop preaching the good news of Lord Jesus Christ to our lost and dying world.
My answer is, don’t let the prayer shaming stop you from praying. Now is the time to pray more than ever before because the forces of darkness have been unleashed all around us.
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