Blueprints for bad times provide helpful patterns
Towards an authentic Christian response to adversity
The late-summer news has been unremittingly bad. Bomb blasts, missile strikes, riots and rebellions have been drumming a disastrous din in countries around the world. Pain and suffering are on public display as catastrophic events dominate newspaper headlines and television reports. Floods, sabotage and leadership failures of all sorts crowd the front pages. The devastating effects of crashing currencies highlight despair on the faces of people at home and abroad.
Add a pinch of millennial angst to this mixture of mayhem and cataclysm and a recipe for Apocalypse begins to sound more than half-baked. What is a healthy Christian response to troubling times? What should we be doing when God’s good work is hindered and the welfare of millions of people is put at risk by calamity and sheer human perversity? What attitudes and actions should characterize the people of God when survival itself seems so tenuous?
A pattern of prayer
Certainly a Christian response needs to begin with prayer. Throughout the book of Acts, the first Christians demonstrated a pattern of prayer that proved to be more than equal to the afflictions that threatened to overwhelm them. Time after time in the face of misfortune, the early believers met together to pray to God about the need of the hour.
A prime example occurs once the early Christians’ heady first days of popularity and growth have given way to scattering and persecution. By the time Acts 12 is penned, tough times have taken hold. Violence is being used against Christians, especially their leaders. Herod has pleased the local populace by killing the apostle James. Then Peter is arrested and plans to execute him are announced. Imprisoned under very tight security, his demise is certain.
But Peter has friends who believe in a powerful God. "While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him" (12:5). Short as it is, this verse contains at least four principles that seem to have been part and parcel of the power experienced by the early church. The first is an emphasis on the church gathered. As they had in previous situations, the people of God found strength in coming together to pray. Their common purpose and action demonstrated Christian unity. Such activity pleases God.
The second thing to notice about the way these early Christians responded to an outside threat is that their prayer was earnest. They prayed "fervently." This was not an idle exercise to them. Rather, they involved themselves in intense, believing, passionate, ardent prayer. And, thirdly, their prayers were clearly directed to the one true God known as YHWH, who gave the world its Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lots of people claim to pray, but misdirected prayers produce misguided results.
Finally, these Christians knew what they were praying about. This was not a stream of consciousness meandering through the spiritual landscape. They prayed to God for Peter. There was a clear objective to their activity; a certain specificity that no doubt stretched their faith.
The rest of the story is a tale of deliverance replete with melodrama, comedy and fully plausible traces of human weakness. Even those who demonstrated such a wholesome Christian response had a hard time believing that God could and would grant their request so directly and completely. Prayer is a primary Christian response to adversity of any sort.
A pattern of love
A second biblical pattern of response to troubling times also derives from Peter’s many experiences. "The end of all things is near," he proclaims dramatically in 1 Peter 4:7. But he does not at this point recommend stockpiling canned goods, ammunition and bottled water in a hideout in Montana. Rather, he calls first for the kind of sober-minded thinking that will provide a proper perspective on the current situation, in order that we might pray more intelligently about it ("be serious and discipline yourself for the sake of your prayers").
The apostle then makes the radical assertion that Christians who feel the end is near should "maintain constant love for one another" (8)–love that is unselfish, outreaching, consistent and unconditional. And he adds a couple of practical suggestions: Be hospitable ("without complaining") is one. Use whatever gifts and abilities you have to serve God and others comes hard on its heels. Showing love through these sensible ways, we are told, "covers a multitude of sins."
I have no solution to the currency crisis in Russia or the collapsing loonie in Canada. I can offer little direct help to the flooded homeless of China and nothing but tears for Congo. My ability to affect events in Sudan, Afghanistan, South Africa or Ireland is small.
But I am not alone. God went global long before Coca-Cola. And there are at least two things any and all of his people can do in uncertain times, when adversity threatens. We can get together to pray to God for the needs that press most closely on our hearts and lives. And we can resolve to find practical ways to demonstrate the kind of love that lessens misery and improves the quality of life of people around us.
Doug
Koop
Editor
