Colorado Fires: Scriptures of Hope

West Fork Fire, via: 9 News

As fires continue to burn across Colorado, here are some things we can pray for:

• - For rain
• - For the firefighters
• - For those who have lost their homes
• - For those being threatened
• - For local church communities as they reach out to comfort and serve

Check out these Scriptures of hope

The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.  James 5:17-18 MSG Version

The thief comes with the sole intention of stealing and killing and destroying, but I came to bring them life, and far more life than before.  John 10:10 JBP

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT

Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.  Romans 12:15 NLT

Keep your eyes on Jesus

Do you have to understand God, or understand much of anything in order to worship Him?

Do the events of life have to make sense in order to follow Him?

Did He reveal His love to you at one point, knowing that in the future you would come across a seeming contradiction and turn away?

Did He know you'd encounter someone whose doubts would become your own?

Are the times of aloneness when you don't "feel" God's love signs that He doesn't love you anymore?

These types of questions seem to be the struggles and battleground of faith.

It is much easier to believe when things are going our way.

What if God knows fully and loves fully?  He says He does.  Can I believe that when going through struggles?

The spiritual journey can be like learning to ride a bike.  We like the training wheels of security.  We like to think God is holding on to the back of the bike all the way down the street.  In reality He takes off the training wheels, gives us a push and off we go.  It is exhilarating at first until the bike starts to wobble, or we fall down.

Yes, the analogy breaks down because God is with us even when it may feel like He isn't.

But this is where faith comes in.  Trusting when you can't see.  Holding on in the dark to what you believed in the light.

I've been talking with quite a few people who are being shaken (myself included).  Aurora Theater Shootings, Boston Marathon Bombings, Texas Plant Explosion, Hurricane Sandy, Oklahoma Tornadoes, Death of loved ones, etc.

I don't have a lot of answers.  

I do know that every time we ask Him to hear us He does.  

I do know every time we invite Him to be with us in suffering He brings comfort.  

I do know peace fills our minds when we give up our right to understand everything.

I do know when His kingdom comes, wrongs are set right.

And I'm learning the contradictions and paradoxes are part of the fog of this life, the smoke rising from skirmishes between good and evil.

My dad would have reminded me "Sure its tough.  But in terms of what you're going through-- a little smoke never hurt anybody.  Keep your eyes on Jesus."

Ever-present help...

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Psalm 46:1

Bombings, terrorism, violent crime, shooting rampages, natural disasters, civil war, innocent victims...

The mantra of "We're gonna get back up!" can begin to sound hollow and empty. 

The answer isn't resignation, but surely there must be a greater source of strength than "the indomitable American spirit?"  

It can seem like we're walking through the valley of the shadow of death and trying to cheer ourselves (and others) back to the mountaintop.  The resilience and potential resolve of the human spirit is amazing.  We all need encouragement.  

But sometimes you don't need a cheerleader but "one called alongside to help."  
That is one of the meanings of the Holy Spirit's name.  He actually gives help, peace, strength, hope...

It is in the place of desperation where we can "fear no evil" not because we are super-positive, but because "God is with us."

An ever-present help in trouble.

The Psalms can become our songs.  We can learn to sing in every situation.  Sometimes lamenting.  Sometimes celebrating.  Just reading them, singing them, it puts words and expression to our struggle.  It opens the door for God's presence to comfort and strengthen.

One guy shared about being shaken up by the economy and the stress of it all. He wondered about how to provide for his family.  He plunged deeper into despair and self-destructive behavior.  He was asking "WHY GOD?  Why did you let me get into this mess?"

Reaching the end of his rope something changed.  Perspective changes when you can't pull yourself up and don't have the strength to hold on.

He found the ever-present help in trouble.

Learning to quit searching for more resolve, more internal strength, more happy thoughts.  How exhausting when everything around us is being shaken.

"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe..."  Hebrews 12:28

An ever-present help in trouble.